slim, you're welcome.
smiddy, no, it's a fact-finding body akin to the ARC.
Corney
JoinedPosts by Corney
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IICSA hearings resume next week
by Corney inthe independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (iicsa) will hold additional virtual public hearings in the child protection in religious organisations and settings investigation next week.. the timetable was released today: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/20825/view/virtual-cpiros-timetable-week-3-10-august-2020.pdf .
five witnesses will testify on the jw issue next monday and tuesday, 10 and 11 august:.
- pr-a5, a victim abused by ministerial servant peter stewart;.
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IICSA hearings resume next week
by Corney inthe independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (iicsa) will hold additional virtual public hearings in the child protection in religious organisations and settings investigation next week.. the timetable was released today: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/20825/view/virtual-cpiros-timetable-week-3-10-august-2020.pdf .
five witnesses will testify on the jw issue next monday and tuesday, 10 and 11 august:.
- pr-a5, a victim abused by ministerial servant peter stewart;.
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Corney
Charity Commission's Harvey Grenville (currently a senior technical advisor) on the Watch Tower Britain and Manchester New Moston inquiries:
We clearly recognise the right of charities to challenge our decisions when they think that we have got it wrong, but we are on record as saying, in particular in respect of the Manchester New Moston and The Watchtower inquiries, that the level of legal challenge that we received, which I think numbered five in two years, is simply unprecedented. In the instance of -- I think it is separate for Watchtower, but in the instance of the Manchester New Moston inquiry, it was the primary factor why we were unable -- alongside the very limited co-operation that we received from the trustees and Watchtower as to why it took the length of time that it did. Essentially, we had to compile our findings independently of any engagement, or significant engagement, with either the trustees of Manchester New Moston or the branch -- the central office, and the only engagement that we received was at the end when we submitted the draft inquiry report for comments on factual accuracy.
...I think, overall, the characterisation or implication that somehow The Watchtower charity and the Branch Committee are fully co-operative with us is not a characterisation I would recognise.
...Most recently, we wrote to Watchtower with concerns about sufficiency of the policies and procedures that the congregations are using, with the expert and third party professional support. They responded with some concerns to those comments. I rang one of the Branch Committee members up in December, urging or requesting that we just simply meet face to face to discuss those items. They declined to do so, and, in response, we received pre-action correspondence of further potential litigation.
...the purpose of opening the inquiry into Watchtower was because, as a result of our earlier engagement, we understood that Watchtower was the charity that produced the child protection safeguarding policy for adoption by the congregations, and rather than us opening a class inquiry into 1,300 congregations, we sought to work directly at the centre. So the obstruction or the delays are, in our view, in a large part, due to the fact that Watchtower are not fully and actively co-operating with the inquiry. There is information we have requested that is outstanding. -
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IICSA hearings resume next week
by Corney inthe independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (iicsa) will hold additional virtual public hearings in the child protection in religious organisations and settings investigation next week.. the timetable was released today: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/20825/view/virtual-cpiros-timetable-week-3-10-august-2020.pdf .
five witnesses will testify on the jw issue next monday and tuesday, 10 and 11 august:.
- pr-a5, a victim abused by ministerial servant peter stewart;.
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Corney
Is there any pressure on them to release this information? Or the figures in involved?
Lloyd Evans (and probably that exJW group too) called for a separate investigation into the JWs and asked the Inquiry to request files from the branch (a recent example) but it's unclear whether the panel is willing to do this.
Will the Kingdom Hall Trust, IBSA, and Watch Tower Britain be liable?
There are various possible scenarios, but in most cases it will be possible to sue, depending on circumstances, WTB or KHT.
Has Gillies ever explained whether long-standing elders have been questioned or checked for past involvement in child sexual abuse?
No, afaik
It seems to me that the Circuit Overseer and the elders in each congregation are responsible for appointments of elders and ministerial servants and so the body corporate cannot be held liable for compensation.
Why? Elders act under supervision and control of CCJW/WTB, policies are established and disseminated by CCJW/WTB, circuit overseers are appointed and paid by CCJW/WTB, congregations are officially declared KHT branches etc. etc.
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32
IICSA hearings resume next week
by Corney inthe independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (iicsa) will hold additional virtual public hearings in the child protection in religious organisations and settings investigation next week.. the timetable was released today: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/20825/view/virtual-cpiros-timetable-week-3-10-august-2020.pdf .
five witnesses will testify on the jw issue next monday and tuesday, 10 and 11 august:.
- pr-a5, a victim abused by ministerial servant peter stewart;.
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Corney
Secondly it should be rather easy to prove that not all the information in the elder’s book is available elsewhere. Has anyone gone to the trouble of specifically identifying what information is not accessible for non-elders?
Lloyd tried (additional statement, paragraph 11)
Yet the document at no point discusses the fact that children can go on the ministry with adults who are not their parents
Gillies addressed this and similar issues in his additional statement (paragraphs 8-14). I don't know whether his arguments are legally correct but they don't seem persuasive.
These numbers appear to be relatively low compared with the numbers uncovered by the Australian Royal Commission, where around 1000 historic accusations were recorded and not reported to the authorities, from a smaller population. Is there a reason based in definition or in practice that would explain why these numbers appear to be of a different order of magnitude?
Yes, it's about definition: these numbers refer only to "institutional" abusers, i.e. elders, ministerial servants and "persons accused of committing child sexual abuse in an institutional context (e.g. alleged abuse at a place of worship by a congregant or a non-Witness)" (paragraph 82).
Throughout the document the author is at pains to stress that Watch Tower charities do no set policies and it attempts to shield them from legal culpability. Are these credible manoeuvres or futile gestures?
Their position, as I understand, is that since 2011, the CCJW (which apparently operates the Legal and Service departments) is the only branch entity responsible for safeguarding (see also this ruling, paragraphs 6 and 7). I don't think they have great chances to prevail on this issue; by the way, the KHT has explicitly accepted responsibility for child safeguarding.
I'm also surprised by the claim that the local congregation charities' sole function is to "administer property and financial matters". In my opinion, no court will ever accept this.
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32
IICSA hearings resume next week
by Corney inthe independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (iicsa) will hold additional virtual public hearings in the child protection in religious organisations and settings investigation next week.. the timetable was released today: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/20825/view/virtual-cpiros-timetable-week-3-10-august-2020.pdf .
five witnesses will testify on the jw issue next monday and tuesday, 10 and 11 august:.
- pr-a5, a victim abused by ministerial servant peter stewart;.
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32
IICSA hearings resume next week
by Corney inthe independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (iicsa) will hold additional virtual public hearings in the child protection in religious organisations and settings investigation next week.. the timetable was released today: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/20825/view/virtual-cpiros-timetable-week-3-10-august-2020.pdf .
five witnesses will testify on the jw issue next monday and tuesday, 10 and 11 august:.
- pr-a5, a victim abused by ministerial servant peter stewart;.
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Corney
Yes. Also, transcripts and recordings will be availbale here: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/investigation/child-protection-religious-organisations-and-settings?tab=hearing
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IICSA hearings on religious organizations begin 16 March
by Corney inthe independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (iicsa) is holding a public hearing in the child protection in religious organisations and settings investigation for the next two weeks.
the provisional timetable for the first week was released today: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/17795/view/2020-03-12-cpiros-public-hearing-week-one-timetable.pdf .
five witnesses will testify on the jw issue next thursday, 19 march:.
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32
IICSA hearings resume next week
by Corney inthe independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (iicsa) will hold additional virtual public hearings in the child protection in religious organisations and settings investigation next week.. the timetable was released today: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/20825/view/virtual-cpiros-timetable-week-3-10-august-2020.pdf .
five witnesses will testify on the jw issue next monday and tuesday, 10 and 11 august:.
- pr-a5, a victim abused by ministerial servant peter stewart;.
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Corney
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) will hold additional virtual public hearings in the Child Protection in Religious Organisations and Settings investigation next week.
The timetable was released today: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/20825/view/virtual-cpiros-timetable-week-3-10-august-2020.pdf
Five witnesses will testify on the JW issue next Monday and Tuesday, 10 and 11 August:
- PR-A5, a victim abused by ministerial servant Peter Stewart;
- Sarah Davies and Duncan Corbett, on behalf of Ex-JW Advocates Opposing Crimes Against Children, "a group of survivors of child sexual abuse, former elders and former member activits, within Jehovah’s Witnesses religious organisations in the UK", and Lloyd Evans;
- Paul Gillies, "the director of the Office of Public Information of the World Headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses", on behalf of Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Hearings will be streamed online here: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/live
Previous thread: https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5193036790235136/iicsa-hearings-on-religious-organizations-begin-16-march
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AUSTRALIA | 23 July 2020 - Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall bomber found guilty by Supreme Court
by jwleaks inleonard warwick has been found guilty for a number of bombings committed during the 1980’s, including the family court bombing and the jehovah’s witnesses casula congregation kingdom hall bombing on 21 july 1985 which killed the public speaker, graham wykes, and injured 13 others.. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-23/leonard-warwick-family-court-bomber-found-guilty/12483286.
side note: i have been closely following this story for 35 years now, including the past few years of supreme court hearings, much of which dealt with the jehovah’s witnesses kingdom hall bombing..
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Corney
In case you want to learn more about this case, here is the (extremely lenghty) judgment: http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2020/926.html
Honestly, I'm shocked. Just think about this: five bombings took place in 18 months, including three targeting the judiciary and one targeting a church, but the police investigation was effectively stopped just two years after the latest bombing, in July 1987, and "[n]o further substantive investigations occurred until July 2013, when a decision was made by the Officer in Charge of the Unsolved Homicide team to commence a further investigation". Perhaps this 26-years-long delay wasn't entirely unreasonable, but it doesn't seem to be entirely reasonable too.
And as the result, the case against Mr Warwick was pretty weak. His bloodstains were the only strong evidence against him. He was convicted of five crimes other than the Kingdom Hall bombing just because he had motives and no alibis. There was no proof of "any qualification or experience in dealing with explosives", the bombs had little in common, and despite at least four searches in the defendant's house conducted between 1980 and 1985, literally no physical evidence was found linking him to the crimes.
To be fair, the judgment isn't unreasonable and makes sense but it seems to me that the defendant's guilt hasn't been proven beyond a reasonable doubt in respect of every charge. I still hope justice really has been served in this case, and he hasn't been wrongly convicted on any count..
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Jehovah’s Witnesses Sue Owners of FaithLeaks for Posting 74 Convention Movies
by AndersonsInfo inhttps://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/jehovahs-witnesses-sue-faithleaks-owners-over-convention-videos .
https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020/05/01/jehovahs-witnesses-sue-owners-of-faithleaks-for-posting-74-convention-movies/.
the watch tower bible and tract society of pennsylvania, which oversees the jehovah’s witnesses, is suing the truth and transparency foundation and its founders ryan c. mcknight and ethan g. dodge alleging copyright infringement..
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Corney
The case has been settled: the defendants will never again publish copyrighted material owned by Watch Tower and will pay $15,000.
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.536399/gov.uscourts.nysd.536399.24.1.pdf
https://www.truthandtransparency.org/press/2020/07/20/truth-transparency-settles-with-watch-tower
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2020/07/20/mormonleaks-founders-pay/