Montana Court Reverses $35 Million Child Abuse Verdict Against Jehovah's Witnesses

Merrit Kennedy, NPR

Two women who were sexually abused as children say the Jehovah's Witnesses failed to report their abuser to authorities in Montana and instead expelled him from the congregation as punishment until he repented. Pictured, in 2015, is a sign atop the then-world headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses in New York. Seth Wenig/AP

The Montana Supreme Court has reversed a $35 million judgment against Jehovah's Witnesses for failing to report child sexual abuse.

A lower court had found that the church illegally failed to report a child sexual abuser to authorities, which allowed him to continue sexually abusing another child.

The unanimous decision from seven state Supreme Court justices found that religious authorities are not always obligated to report child sexual abuse to authorities due to an exemption in Montana state law.

"This is a very disappointing decision, particularly at this time in our society when religious and other institutions are covering up the sexual abuse of child victims," Neil Smith, a lawyer for the women who were abused as children, said in a statement.

Lawyers for the Jehovah's Witnesses did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment. "No child should ever be subjected to such a debased crime," lawyer Joel Taylor said in a statement to The Associated Press. "Tragically, it happens, and when it does Jehovah's Witnesses follow the law. This is what the Montana Supreme Court has established."

Jehovah's Witnesses have come under scrutiny in other states and countries for the handling of child sexual abuse claims. For example, a 2016 inquiry by a royal commission in Australia found that the Jehovah's Witnesses organization there had recorded allegations of child sexual abuse against 1,006 members — but the investigators found no evidence that it revealed any of the reports to authorities.

The court's opinion states that Holly McGowan told local Jehovah's Witnesses elders in 1998 that she was being abused by her stepfather, Maximo Reyes, who had married her mother four years before. But because Reyes did not confess and McGowan did not have a second witness to her allegations, she was told that the elders could not take further action. According to the opinion, the abuse "escalated to numerous incidents of rape."

Six years later, her brother told an elder that their stepfather had also sexually abused him. McGowan provided a letter to back up his claims, acting as a second witness. The elder did not report the allegations to authorities but convened a committee that banished Reyes from the congregation. They reinstated him just over a year later at his request, according to the opinion.

In 2002, Reyes also started molesting Alexis Nunez, the niece of McGowan and her brother. "Alexis was five years old when Maximo's abuse began and ten years old when it ended," the opinion states. It says the abuse happened on a weekly basis.

In her 2016 lawsuit, Nunez accused the church of negligence for failing to report her uncle's child abuse report to authorities. The court ruled that the Jehovah's Witnesses illegally failed to report the abuse, and the jury awarded her $4 million in actual damages and $31 million in punitive damages.

NPR does not typically name survivors of sexual abuse without their permission. The law office representing Nunez and McGowan said they are supportive of their names appearing in the press on this matter; McGowan's brother is not party to this case.

In the court's opinion on Wednesday, Justice Beth Baker wrote that the church was not a mandatory reporter of abuse because of the exception in the state law. The law states that "a member of the clergy or a priest is not required to make a report under this section if the communication is required to be confidential by canon law, church doctrine, or established church practice."

The opinion finds that Jehovah's Witnesses maintain confidentiality as part of their religious canon or practice unless they are required by state law to report child abuse to authorities. Nunez's lawyers have argued that "because the decision to report child abuse to local authorities ultimately lies within the discretion of each elder, confidentiality is optional, not required," the opinion states.

State laws vary widely about whether clergy members are required to report child abuse and neglect. According to the Children's Bureau, which is a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 18 states require any person who suspects child abuse or neglect to report it — and that appears to include clergy.

Some states require clergy to report but provide exceptions for certain kinds of privileged communications, such as confessions. Generally, that privilege is "not absolute," the Children's Bureau states. While it is "frequently recognized within the reporting laws, it is typically interpreted narrowly in the context of child abuse or neglect."

This is sickening! I might almost agree with these half-baked laws if there was even a little bit of indication that the various churches were actually doing something to prevent child sexual abuse. But for the most part, and definitely in this case, there was no real effort made to protect Holly, her brother, or her niece, only the pedophile. There was no apparent follow up to see if the molestations continued.

The requirement of having a witness to your molestation is something that belongs in Islam, not Christianity. Truth should be the requirement! 

How can a church say they represent God when they throw innocent children to the wolves, and then protect the wolves? Some 'men of God' are going to be extremely uncomfortable standing before Jesus Christ on that Day.

Quebec Police Probe Possible Child Sexual Abuse in Jehovah's Witnesses Congregation

Investigators seeking other possible victims of two men,

Radio-Canada’s Enquête reports

CBC News 

Pénélope Herbert, left, told Enquête about repeated alleged sexual assaults by Michel Courtemanche. Carolle Poudrier, right, also told Enquête about allegations of sexual contact by Courtemanche. (Jasmin Simard/Radio-Canada)

Quebec provincial police are investigating allegations of child sexual abuse by two members of a Jehovah's Witnesses congregation in Mont-Laurier in the Laurentians, Radio-Canada's investigative program Enquête has learned.

Both men have been sanctioned through the church's internal disciplinary process for dealing with allegations of child abuse, but congregation elders did not share their findings with civil authorities.

One of the men being investigated, Michel Courtemanche, who has been expelled from the congregation, was acquitted of charges of sexual assault and indecent assault in 1996.

However, the Sûreté du Québec has renewed its investigation of Courtemanche and has begun investigating another man, former congregation elder Georges Leclerc, based on new evidence from at least seven alleged victims.

Leclerc has been stripped of his status as an elder, but he has not been arrested or charged, and he refused to speak with Enquête.

Courtemanche has not been arrested or charged as a result of the new investigation and denies the allegations against him. In an interview with Enquête, he pointed to his 1996 acquittal.

"My answer is there was a judgment on this based on very precise facts, and I was acquitted," he said.

At least 7 potential victims, police say

Enquête spoke with Pénélope Herbert, the woman whose allegations of repeated sexual assaults starting when she was just 10 led to Courtemanche's 1996 trial.  

Carolle Poudrier, now in her mid-40s, also told Enquête of alleged sexual contact by Courtemanche, over a period of months when she was 11.

In the case of Herbert, she said the assaults continued until she was 17 — even after her family moved from Mont-Laurier.

"He would come to our house to say hello and would sleep over," Herbert, now 42, told Enquête. 

"Those nights, he would come to my room.

We're talking total rape, those nights."

Carolle Poudrier told Enquête of alleged sexual contact by Michel Courtemanche, over a period of months when she was 11. (Jasmin Simard/Radio-Canada)

Enquête has learned the SQ has interviewed more than 40 people, of whom seven have been identified as potential victims of either Courtemanche or Leclerc.

Four of the seven, including Herbert and Poudrier, have now filed formal complaints with police. SQ spokesperson Martine Asselin told Enquête they're now seeking other possible victims and witnesses.

"We're looking to identify other potential victims who perhaps feel they're alone and aren't ready to talk," Asselin said. "They should know that investigators are ready to meet with them and witnesses."

Both men were friends

According to Enquête, Leclerc and Courtemanche were friends around the time Herbert's parents lodged an internal complaint with the congregation about the alleged assaults on their daughter.

Leclerc was, as a congregation elder, a senior member of the congregation who is responsible for providing religious guidance and ruling on disciplinary matters.

Enquête said Leclerc allegedly did not speak to Herbert to learn the details of her complaint, as required by Jehovah's Witness protocols in such matters.

Courtemanche was later reprimanded and allowed to remain in the congregation.

Georges Leclerc and Michel Courtemanche were friends around the time Pénélope Herbert's parents lodged an internal complaint with the congregation, according to Enquête. (Jasmin Simard/Radio-Canada)

Disillusioned with how the Jehovah's Witnesses had handled her complaint, Herbert took her allegations to police in 1995.

Courtemanche remained a Jehovah's Witness after his acquittal but was expelled in 2014, Enquête found, after two other women filed internal complaints alleging he had assaulted them as minors.

Leclerc remains with the Mont-Laurier congregation, but Enquête says he was stripped of his elder duties after at least three women filed complaints internally with the Jehovah's Witnesses, alleging he had assaulted them when they were minors.

Police, youth protection not notified of allegations

According to Enquête, the first time police investigated Herbert's allegations against Courtemanche in the mid-1990s, they were not aware Carolle Poudrier's parents had also alleged Courtemanche had assaulted their daughter.

Poudrier's parents were members of a congregation in Terrebonne, just north of Montreal, and had filed their complaint there — not with Courtemanche's congregation in Mont-Laurier.

Poudrier alleged that Courtemanche, who was working for her dad, would make her sit on his lap so he could caress and tickle her, which made her uneasy. A few months later, he kissed her twice.

"He asked me if I'd ever kissed anyone, and he put his tongue in my mouth. I found that disgusting," Poudrier told Enquête.

After she told her parents and they complained, Poudrier was made to recount what happened to a congregational elder in the presence of her father.

Carolle Poudrier told what happened to a congregational elder in the presence of her father. (Jasmin Simard/Radio-Canada)

"I was really stressed talking about sexual matters with a man I didn't know, in front of my father. It was embarrassing," Poudrier said.

She said the elder thanked her for telling him what had happened and said that "he was there to take care of it."

In a lawyer's letter to Radio-Canada, the elder in question, John MacEwan, said he knew Poudrier's family but denied meeting with them concerning allegations against Courtemanche.

When asked by Enquête if the Terrebonne congregation had shared the complaint against Courtemanche with his Mont-Laurier congregation, MacEwan refused to answer.

Neither police nor youth protection authorities were ever notified of the alleged assaults on Poudrier.

The Jehovah's Witnesses leadership, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, has given preference to internal judicial procedures and protocols for dealing with matters such as child abuse.

Carolle Poudrier's father, left, had worked with Michel Courtemanche, right. (Jasmin Simard/Radio-Canada)

"In some jurisdictions, individuals who learn of an allegation of child abuse may be obligated by law to report the allegation to the secular authorities," an internal memo to elders from 2016 reads.

"In all cases, the victim and her parents have the absolute right to report an allegation to the authorities."

When it comes to sharing information with outside authorities, however, the leadership has insisted on maintaining confidentiality, citing privacy and the ecclesiastical privilege conferred by confessions.

Enquête found there are as many as 30 steps a Jehovah's Witness must take before that person is allowed to testify in court or furnish civil authorities with church documents, when it comes to matters of child abuse.

"When you study the process, you realize it's really a process for avoiding, a system for protecting the reputation of the Jehovah's Witnesses,"  said Marilou Lagacé, a former Witness interviewed by Enquête.

New instructions regarding allegations of child sexual abuse

A recent royal commission in Australia found the Jehovah's Witness church there had recorded allegations of child sexual abuse against 1,006 members over a 60-year period. Not one allegation had been reported to authorities outside the church.

With pressure mounting in the wake of that royal commission and other allegations of sexual abuse of children in its ranks, on Sept. 1, the Watchtower Society issued new instructions regarding allegations of child sexual abuse.

Those instructions recognize child sexual abuse as a crime and assert that members should be "clearly informed that they have the right" to report an allegation of abuse to police.

"The congregation's handling of an accusation of child sexual abuse is not intended to replace the secular authority's handling of the matter," the Sept. 1 letter reads.

"Therefore, the victim, her parents, or anyone else who reports such an allegation to the elders should be clearly informed that they have the right to report the matter to the secular authorities.

Elders do not criticize anyone who chooses to make such a report."

Uniting Church has Faced 2,500 Reports of Child Sexual Abuse

Uniting church says it now has new policies,

but Jehovah’s Witnesses fail to change two-witness rule

or shunning in response to 1,008 allegations of abuse

Angus Stewart, SC, addresses the opening day of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse public hearing into the Uniting Church on Friday. Photograph: Jeremy Piper, royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse/AAP

Christopher Knaus and Australian Associated Press

The Uniting church has been subject to about 2,500 allegations of child sexual abuse in its 40-year history, the royal commission has heard.

The Uniting Church was formed 40 years ago by uniting the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches of Australia. It has over a million people who identify with it but about only 10% of that number attends weekend services.

The child abuse royal commission also heard that there were 1,006 alleged perpetrators of abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses, but the congregation did not report a single one to police.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses, the inquiry heard, were still refusing to change a second century biblical rule requiring two witnesses to prove wrongdoing.

The royal commission returned to its examination of the Uniting church and the Jehovah’s Witnesses on Friday, seeking to understand how each had reformed its handling of child protection and abuse complaints.

Counsel assisting, Angus Stewart, SC, said the royal commission had analysed data provided by the Uniting church on 2,504 child abuse complaints since 1977.

Of those allegations, 133 related to abuse that occurred in places of worship.

The church had paid out about $17.5m to survivors, and had been the subject of 255 civil claims, Stewart said.

The royal commission is exploring how the church’s complicated structure is affecting its ability to have consistent child protection measures and complaint handling mechanisms.

The Uniting church has 1,065,000 members, making it the third largest Christian denomination in Australia.

It has 40,000 employees and 30,000 volunteers, and runs 64 schools and 179 agencies providing services to children, youth, or the broader community.

It is governed by a series of non-hierarchical councils, including the assembly, known as the national council, and state and territory synods, regional presbyteries, and individual congregations.

The national assembly develops and promotes child safety policy and codes of conduct, but each of the various councils are responsible for implementing them. 

The church has developed a national child safe policy framework, which is modelled on recommendations from the royal commission. That framework was approved last weekend.

The royal commission chair, Justice Peter McClellan, asked whether the church had used its considerable following to influence the federal government on implementing a national redress scheme.

The Uniting church president, Stuart McMillan, said churches had far less influence than they did in the 1950s and 60s. But McMillan said the church was helping to encourage governments to commit to the scheme.

“We’re certainly doing that your honour, I have facilitated meetings of our ecumenical partners to have conversations about redress and about redress schemes,” McMillan said.

“We had a meeting with the commonwealth only in January to talk about matters that needed to be explored if they are going to go ahead with the scheme,” he said.

“There’s certainly goodwill on the part of churches on this matter.”

Earlier, the royal commission heard evidence about the extent of abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

It heard there were at least 1,008 survivors of alleged abuse, and 579 Jehovah’s Witnesses members confessed.

About 400 alleged perpetrators were expelled from the congregation, and 230 later reinstated. The royal commission reported 514 perpetrators to police.

It also heard victims were still shunned if they left the organisation.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses in Australia consider that they are prohibited by scripture from altering the application of a two-witness rule that applies in all cases of complaints of wrongdoing, the royal commission heard.

The commission found the organisation wrongly relied on that rule in the context of child sexual abuse, saying complainants were subject to ongoing traumatisation if their allegation wasn’t corroborated by a confession by their abuser or a second “credible” eyewitness.

Stewart said the Jehovah’s Witnesses had failed to address many of the inquiry’s recommendations, including that they revise or modify the application of that rule.

He said the organisation had also failed to address the particularly devastating practice of shunning victims who disassociated from the Jehovah’s Witnesses because their abuser remained in the congregation, while maintaining it was not a policy.

The commission found the Jehovah’s Witnesses did not respond adequately to child sexual abuse complaints and did not adequately protect children from the risk of being abused.

But senior members of the Australian church dispute the commission’s finding that the organisation has a general practice of not reporting child sexual abuse allegations to police or authorities unless required to do so by law.

“We have never had a practice of not reporting,” Jehovah’s Witness Australian branch committee member Terrence O’Brien told the commission on Friday.

Hmmm. Let me see. What does it say above - 1006 perpetrators and not one of them reported to police. If that's not policy, it's very bizarre.

O’Brien said hundreds were reported, although not by the organisation because it was left to the elders handling the case or the parents.

So it was left to the whim of the elders meaning there was no policy to report.

The commission heard the Jehovah’s Witnesses had referred 15 of 17 child abuse allegations to police that had arisen since the commission hearings, noting that in two cases the adult survivors did not want it reported.

Rodney Spinks, who advises church elders on how to handle child sexual abuse cases, said victims or their parents were told they had the absolute right to report abuse to authorities and that the elders would fully support them.

Right!

JW's Practices Against Child Sex Victims is Cultish and Unbiblical

Jehovah's Witnesses' process for handling child sex abuse allegations keeps authorities in the dark

Radio-Canada's Enquête investigates allegations that the closed religious movement fails to protect children

CBC News

    The policies of Jehovah's Witnesses are established by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society,
    based in New York state. (Radio-Canada)

Mélanie Poirier was 10 when she started taking piano lessons and it would prove to be an experience that changed her life forever. At that very first lesson, she said, her piano teacher sexually assaulted her. It went on for five years.

"Week after week, at every piano lesson, he would masturbate in front of me. And he would ask me to touch him," Poirier told Radio-Canada's investigative program, Enquête.

Her father, Benoît Poirier, was in the next room waiting for her lesson to be over, completely unaware, she said.

Poirier said she couldn't tell her father, who was a Jehovah's Witness elder, or anyone else what was happening because her piano teacher was also an elder in the congregation that her family belonged to in a Montreal suburb.

"He was well-known, an elder, an example to follow," she said.

The biggest obstacle, however, was the fact she didn't have a second witness to the alleged abuse — a key requirement of the church's internal judicial system.

"If I told anyone, nothing would have happened. I wouldn't be believed. The elders wouldn't have even stopped to listen to me," Poirier said.

    Former Jehovah's Witness Mélanie Poirier on confronting her alleged abuser 1:00

Internal policies — and no police

The Poiriers are among several former Jehovah's Witnesses in Quebec and the United States who spoke to Enquête about the church's policies for dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse and their failure to protect victims.

Among those policies: complainants are made to answer inappropriate questions if they report an assault, and their stories must be corroborated by a second witness for a case to even be heard by an internal judicial committee. Until this past summer, accusers were also forced to confront their alleged abuser before a panel of elders.

    Policies for dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse are guided by a strict interpretation of
    biblical scripture. (Radio-Canada)

Radio-Canada also heard allegations that a five-year-old boy from a Quebec congregation was made to repeat his story in front of the man he said abused him. The boy's mother told Enquête the allegations were dismissed because the child did not have a second witness to the alleged assault.

In its investigation, Radio-Canada obtained a questionnaire designed to guide Jehovah's Witness elders interviewing children alleging sexual abuse. It includes the question: "How many elders believe the victim is to blame or willingly participated in the act?"

The questionnaire was drafted by the headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, in the state of New York. The Watchtower Society declined Enquête's request for an interview.

Rules rooted in scripture

The Watchtower Society's leadership bases its policies on a strict interpretation of biblical scripture.

Its policy on making an accuser justify her or his allegations in the accused's presence, for example, is based on a line from the Book of Matthew:

"If your brother commits a sin, go and reveal his fault between you and him alone." — Matthew 18:15

An elders' manual distributed to congregations cites the books of Deuteronomy and John as the basis for the two-witness policy.

"There must be two or three eyewitnesses, not just people repeating hearsay." — Deut. 19:15

"No action can be taken if there is only one witness." — John 8:17

Jehovah's Witnesses have an issue with Biblical scripture; it is that they use a unique interpretation based on a single codex, a single compilation of scriptures that, while early, was not reproduced in any quantity. It is therefore considered to be less accurate than those codices that were widely distributed in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. It explains why they have some bizarre and even blasphemous beliefs about Jesus Christ. 

Verse 8:17 of John is interpreted incorrectly above. 17 Yea and in your law it is written, that the witness of two men is true. 18 I am he that beareth witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.

As you can see, Jesus is speaking and referring to what is written in the Law, specifically Deu 19:15. Christians do not live under the Law, but under grace. Legalism is not Christianity. 

In verse 17 Jesus does not restrict the witness of a single accuser in any way. He merely states that even in the Jew's own Law, the witness of two men is accepted as true. He then goes on to claim Himself and His Father as witnesses to Whom He really is. 

Here are a few preceding verses to put this into proper context: 12 Later, in one of his talks, Jesus said to the people, “I am the Light of the world. So if you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, for living light will flood your path.”

13 The Pharisees replied, “You are boasting—and lying!”

14 Jesus told them, “These claims are true even though I make them concerning myself. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you don’t know this about me. 15 You pass judgment on me without knowing the facts. I am not judging you now; 16 but if I were, it would be an absolutely correct judgment in every respect, for I have with me the Father who sent me. 17 Your laws say that if two men agree on something that has happened, their witness is accepted as fact. 18 Well, I am one witness, and my Father who sent me is the other.”

So, obviously, Jesus was just using the Pharisees own scriptures to prove Himself. He was not making a policy statement, and to interpret it as such is a gross aberration of scripture.

Avoid police policy

While the Watchtower tells elders it is the "absolute right" of members to report allegations of child abuse to police, doing so is effectively discouraged by an organizational emphasis on dealing with such matters internally and avoiding "unnecessary entanglement with secular authorities," as stated in an internal document from 2014.

A recent Royal Commission in Australia found the Jehovah's Witness church there had recorded allegations of child sexual abuse against 1,006 members. Not one allegation was reported to authorities outside the church.

Since 1997, the Watchtower leadership has required that every allegation of child sexual abuse brought to a congregation's attention be sent to the organization's national headquarters. 

Earlier this year, a California court ordered the Watchtower Society to submit a database of the alleged pedophiles among its ranks, but the society has yet to do so.

    Mélanie Poirier and her father, Benoit, both left their congregation in suburban Montreal after
    going through the church's judicial process. (CBC)

'Catastrophic' complaint process

Mélanie Poirier kept her story of alleged weekly assaults by her childhood piano teacher to herself for 20 years, until she met another alleged victim of the same man. Together, they decided to bring their case to the congregation's elders.

Both women were made to defend their allegations in a meeting at which their alleged abuser was present.

"I thought it would be difficult, but it wasn't difficult — it was catastrophic," Poirier said.

"He asked me questions. He said I was mistaken, my memories were wrong, why do I want to do this to him. I was revictimized that evening," Poirier said.

Based on his alleged victims' testimony, a judicial committee composed of elders expelled Poirier's former piano teacher from the Jehovah's Witnesses. He appealed, however, twice — meaning Poirier and the other alleged victim were made to confront the man a total of three times.

The story doesn't end there. Poirier's alleged abuser soon joined another Jehovah's Witness congregation, despite never having admitted to any wrongdoing or repented for the sin he was accused of committing — conditions set by the Watchtower Society for regaining membership.

Enquête contacted Poirier's old teacher, who is still a Jehovah's Witness and doing door-to-door work. He denied the allegations and refused an interview.

Poirier left the Jehovah's Witnesses soon after her ordeal, as did her father. Benoît Poirier said he's never recovered from seeing his daughter treated the way she was, and he's encouraging others to come forward with their stories.

"You're not sullying the organization by speaking out," he said. "These people are traitors, abusers, criminals.… They're sullying the organization with their actions."

Poirier has since taken her case to police in Laval, Que.

Jehovah's Witnesses Failed to Report 1,000 Alleged CSA Perpetrators

Australia's child sex abuse royal commission hears from JWs

By Brad Ryan and Angela Lavoipierre

Angus Stewart SC said the church's policies on sexual abuse were primarily
based on Bible passages. (Child abuse royal commission)

More than 1,000 members of the Jehovah's Witnesses have been identified by the church as perpetrators of child sexual abuse since 1950, but not one was reported to police, an inquiry has heard.

The Jehovah's Witnesses church, which preaches that the end of the world is near, is at the centre of a child abuse royal commission hearing in Sydney today.

Counsel assisting the commission, Angus Stewart SC, said the church relied on Bible passages to set its policies on child sexual abuse, and avoided resorting to secular authorities and courts.

Keep in mind that the Jehovah's Witnesses Bible is not considered valid by other Christian denominations. 

"Evidence will be put before the royal commission that of the 1,006 alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse identified by the Jehovah's Witness church since 1950, not one was reported by the church to secular authorities," Mr Stewart said.

"This suggests that it is the practice of the Jehovah's Witness church to retain information regarding child sexual abuse offences, but not report allegations of child sexual abuse to the police or other relevant authorities."

Mr Stewart said the practice potentially exposed Jehovah's Witness members to criminal liability for concealing serious offences.

He said at least one abuse survivor, who said she had been discouraged by elders from reporting her abuse to authorities, would give evidence.

Bible passages determine abuse policies, hearing told

The case study, which is expected to run for two weeks, is the first to focus on an entire Christian denomination rather than just one part of it.

The term Christian used here is considered as invalid as the JW bible. Their beliefs about the deity of Jesus Christ means they are unlikely to be considered Christians by Christ Himself.

The Jehovah's Witness Church
more than eight million active members in 239 countries
overseen by eight-man Governing Body based in New York
817 congregations in Australia with more than 68,000 members
congregations overseen by bodies of Elders

active in Australia since 1896

Two abuse survivors and at least seven current and former Jehovah's Witness elders are expected to give evidence.

Senior staff for the Jehovah's Witnesses' company, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia, are also expected to appear.

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is also called the False Prophet Society in some circles for it's many predictions of the end of the world over the last 130 years or so. None, apparently, have come true yet.

"The Jehovah's Witness church relies primarily on Bible passages to set its policies and practices," Mr Stewart said.

"Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the only way to finally end child abuse is to as they put it embrace God's kingdom under Christ and to love God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself so as to be saved when the end comes."

Salvation comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ; you can't earn it and you don't ever deserve it. JW's don't get that.

Mr Steward said the church recognised child abuse to be a crime and a "gross sin".

"Their official position is that they abhor child sexual abuse and will not protect any perpetrator of such repugnant acts," Mr Stewart said.

He said two church elders were directed to investigate each child abuse allegation, but they were not authorised to take congregational action unless the accused perpetrator confessed, or the allegation was backed up by a second witness.

That's basically Islamic standards. A woman's word is only half as good as a man's.

"The royal commission will hear that over the past 65 years, the requirement that there be two or more witnesses has prevented at least 125 allegations of child sexual abuse from proceeding to [an internal] judicial committee," Mr Stewart said.

"That is not unexpected given that by its nature there are very seldom witnesses to child sexual abuse beyond the survivor and the perpetrator."

Victims felt blamed by church, lawyer says

Lawyer Angela Sdrinis, who is representing a number of people alleging abuse, said complainants had been slow to come forward because of the organisation's size and culture.

"I've been doing this work for about 20 years and it really is in the past few months that I've been approached by members of the Jehovah's Witnesses who allege sexual abuse within that church," Ms Sdrinis told the ABC's AM program.

"I think people generally need a lot of courage to come forward regarding child sex abuse, and particularly in a faith-based organisation, I think the stricter or more conservative the organisation is, the more difficult it is for the victim to come forward.

"Those who have spoken to me recently, some of them found when they tried to complain about the abuse initially - and we are talking about historical sex abuse - were faced with a response that was basically rejecting of their allegations.

"They felt that the church was trying to blame the victim."

One wonders, if they have changed their policy on reporting perverts, is that policy still based on scripture? If so, what has changed?