Sally-Anne is very concerned about the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ ‘handling of child sexual abuse’
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Sally-Anne was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness.
When she was sexually abused by another member of the church, Jehovah’s Witnesses’ members in authority told her that the abuse was her fault.
Sally-Anne describes a difficult family life. She was subjected to emotional and physical abuse by her parents, particularly her father, who she describes as ‘extremely controlling’.
She relates ‘My dad controlled everything, my thoughts, my everything … he was so controlling, I wasn’t allowed to think, I was constantly made to feel fearful of everything by him’.
One of the ways her parents abused her was force-feeding, sometimes to the point where she vomited.
When Sally-Anne was about eight years old, she was sent to have lunch at the house of a married couple her parents knew from the church. The couple told her to go with their son James, who was a young adult, and he would play with her. She remembers feeling uneasy and frightened when he took her into another room. ‘I could tell there was something strange in the air’ she says.
James sexually abused Sally-Anne, tickling and touching her all over, and digitally penetrating her. She thinks she spent several hours with him doing this.
He told Sally-Anne she mustn’t tell anyone what happened, but a few weeks later she was in a meeting at a Kingdom Hall and says ‘I desperately wanted to tell someone … it sort of fell out of me’.
She told a friend that James had touched her. The friend told an adult woman in the church, who then took Sally-Anne to one side. Sally-Anne relates ‘She got the bible out, said it was my fault and asked what I had done to make it happen’.
Sally-Anne continues ‘I was counselled for my bad behaviour … I had to read the bible. She said she had told the elders so they all knew how “bad” I was’.
From that moment, when Sally-Anne saw James with any other children at church gatherings, she would follow him. ‘I felt I had to protect them … he took children to the toilet and I would be so worried.’
Some time later, James was ‘disfellowshipped’, meaning he was thrown out of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Sally-Anne doesn't know why this happened, but he was allowed to return after a few months.
When she was 15, Sally-Anne reported the abuse to more adults in the church. They said because James had been disfellowshipped and then allowed to return, that meant he was forgiven. They told her she should love James, and not be angry with him.
Some time later, her mother left her father. Church elders tried to persuade her mother to take her abusive husband back, but she refused.
As a young adult, Sally-Anne left the church. She has had counselling which she says has helped her stand up to people.
Sally-Anne suffers from anxiety and panic attacks. She has taken an overdose and has self-harmed. She is unable to feel pleasure during sex. She developed an eating disorder as a teenager and some foods make her physically sick. She believes that the abuse her parents inflicted on her conditioned her to be a ‘victim’ and to accept abuse from other perpetrators.
She has reported the abuse she suffered to the Jehovah’s Witness headquarters. They have said her previous disclosures were mishandled and have asked her to give them a written statement. She has also made a report to the police.
Sally-Anne is very concerned that members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses are still abusing children. ‘It must be stopped. The whole clan is dangerous’ she says.