Exhibit 481 ยท Commission case study report
Report of Case Study No. 29: The response of the Jehovah's Witnesses and Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia Ltd to allegations of child sexual abuse
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.
From about 5,000 documents Watchtower Australia produced under summons: case files on 1,006 alleged perpetrators since 1950, admissions by 579, at least 1,800 alleged victims, 401 disfellowshipped and 230 later reinstated. Finds no evidence of any report by the organisation to police of the 1,006, and views the two-witness rule as wrong in child sexual abuse cases. Records Watchtower's submissions, including that its review found 383 alleged perpetrators had been dealt with by police or secular authorities.
- Source
- Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Australia)
- Date
- October 2016 (public hearing July-August 2015)
- Quoted from
- Section 6.1, p. 60
- Grade
- Primary record
- Document
- https://web.archive.org/web/20250428205125if_/https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/Case%20Study%2029%20-%20Findings%20Report%20-%20Jehovahs%20Witnesses.pdf
- Accessed
- 2026-11-09
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit