Critics say that Jehovah's Witnesses elders have treated child sexual abuse as a sin rather than a crime, documenting complaints in internal files but not reporting them to authorities.
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania grand jury investigating child sexual abuse in the Jehovah’s Witnesses community has charged five more people with raping or molesting children as young as 4, the latest developments inPennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry, at a Friday news conference, said that while the misconduct dates back years or even decades, “the trauma endures for these victims.”
Mark Haugh of York Haven, Pa., a former elder who left the church in 2016 and now advocates for survivors of abuse in the church, applauded investigators. In the charges announced Friday, Henry said that the men had groomed or gained access to the children through the church, sometimes when the child’s family took the person into their home. One person said that she was raped 50 or more times between the ages of 7 and 12 by a church member who was 18 when the assaults began. Others involved less serious charges of inappropriate touching.
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