It has been claimed that the Watchtower organization provided the Australian Royal Commission with 1,006 case files containing allegations of sexual abuse. Of those, 383 had been reported to police at the time they had happened which resulted in 161 convictions.[1] Is this correct?
While this is true, an important bit of information has been left out giving the false impression that the reports were made to the authorities by Watchtower officials. Here is the actual report of the Australian Royal Commission:
6.3 External reporting of child sexual abuse to authorities
Although the position is not clear in relation to a few files, there is otherwise no evidence before the Royal Commission of the Jehovah’s Witness organisation having reported to police or other secular authority a single one of the 1,006 alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse recorded in the case files held by Watchtower Australia.[2] No witness appearing on behalf of the Jehovah’s Witness organisation could identify an instance of the organisation reporting an allegation of child sexual abuse to the police or other authorities.[3] Mr Spinks said that ‘we are not going to at any point suggest that we have telephoned the authorities or have instructed elders to do that’.[4] A letter in evidence before the Royal Commission shows that Watchtower Australia’s own review of the 1,006 case files established that ‘383 alleged perpetrators had been dealt with by either police or secular authorities in the respective States or Territories in which they reside’.[5] That letter did not describe or otherwise suggest that the Jehovah’s Witness organisation had an active role in bringing allegations against the 383 identified perpetrators to the attention of secular authorities. Furthermore, Mr Toole did not dispute that Watchtower Australia’s review of the case files may have yielded some false positive results. That is, it is possible that some of the 383 identified case files may have contained reference to but not had the involvement of the authorities.[6] Similarly, the case files record that 161 of the alleged perpetrators recorded in the files had been convicted of a child sexual abuse offence.[7] It is not possible to conclude on the basis of this data that any of those convictions came about because of reports to the authorities by the Jehovah’s Witness organisation. What this data does suggest is that, although the Jehovah’s Witness organisation did not report allegations against those 161 offenders to the authorities, the offenders had nonetheless come to the attention of police. There is no evidence before the Royal Commission that the Jehovah’s Witness organisation either had or did not have a role or any involvement in bringing to the attention of secular authorities any complaint of child sexual abuse that was investigated by secular authorities.[8]
Report of Case Study No. 29 page 60
See also Final Report Vol. 16 Book 3 pgs. 88-89
[1] In an effort to present the Watchtower society as having cooperated with the authorities, this information was also reported on in the magazine Bitter Winter Jehovah’s Witnesses and Sexual Abuse: 1. The Australian Case (bitterwinter.org)
[2] Exhibit 29-0021, Case Study 29, WAT.9999.013.0012 at [20]
[3] Transcript of VJ Toole, Case Study 29, 5 August 2015, 15776:46–15777:3, 15777:24–15778:22; Transcript of TJ O’Brien, Case Study 29, 5 August 2015, 15860:39–15861:17
[4] Transcript of RP Spinks, Case Study 29, 4 August 2015, 15663:22–9.
[5] Exhibit 29-0021, Case Study 29, WAT.0018.001.0001_R at [10]; Transcript of RP Spinks, Case Study 29, 4 August 2015, 15717:4–15718:3.
[6] Exhibit 29-0021, Case Study 29, WAT.0018.001.0001_R at [10]; Transcript of VJ Toole, Case Study 29, 5 August 2015, 15777:6–22.
[7] Exhibit 29-0021, Case Study 29, WAT.9999.013.0012 at [19].
[8] Further Submissions of Mr A Tokley SC and Mr F Coyne on behalf of the Watchtower & Ors, Case Study 29, 7 July 2016, SUBM.1029.003.0001 at [2.40]