Angelina’s testimony encouraged others with similar experiences of abuse to speak out
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Angelina was brought up as a Jehovah’s Witness.
She gave an account to the Truth Project of the way her disclosure of child sexual abuse was handled by the police and religious elders, and suggested how this could have been improved.
Angelina was sexually abused by a family member when she was about four years old. He later became an elder in the Jehovah’s Witness church.
During her childhood she told one friend, then when she was in her late teens, she disclosed the abuse to her mother. Her mother’s response was ‘Worse things have happened to other people’.
Angelina later found out that other members of her family had been abused by another family member. This was ‘dealt with’ internally by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the family member had been ‘rehabilitated by the Scripture’.
She says the abuse she had suffered was not spoken of again, and she took no further action at the time. Later, she did have counselling, and identified how angry she was with her mother. She says the two of them didn’t speak for a number of years.
Angelina married someone outside her faith, and as a result was partly disowned by the community. She told her husband about the sexual abuse. He was very supportive, as was her father who encouraged her to speak to the elders.
She describes this as a daunting experience. It took place in the Kingdom Hall and she’d not been in contact with the faith for the previous three years. The elders put Angelina’s allegations to the perpetrator, who immediately approached her mother for a private conversation.
She says her mother colluded with his denial of the most serious aspects of the abuse, minimising it as something innocent that had been misconstrued.
With the continuing support of her husband and father, Angelina reported her experiences to the police. A specialist officer came to her house to take a statement. She describes this as a good experience; the officer was skilled and enabled her to give a detailed statement that contributed significantly to a successful prosecution.
But after this, she feels she was let down by the police. She was told that it had been decided to arrest the perpetrator, but it was eight months before this was done. During this time, no concern was expressed for her wellbeing.
There were delays to the trial taking place. It was three years before the case was heard. Angelina felt it was unfair that the perpetrator was able to hear all her evidence but she was not allowed into the public gallery to hear his.
Angelina has symptoms of PTSD and experiences feelings of guilt. She is working with a counsellor to ease these feelings.
She believes that there should be a shorter time between giving a statement and arrest and that police should receive regular supervision and training to ensure they provide consistent quality of service.
She would like the Jehovah’s Witnesses to improve and implement effective safeguarding policies.
Overall, Angelina describes the court process as ‘challenging and unsupportive’. However, she says she was proud of the evidence she gave. The perpetrator was given a custodial sentence and she was comfortable with this sentence. But, she adds, she felt unsafe in the month between the trial and sentencing.
Her relationship with her mother has improved, and since her case, more family members have spoken about sexual abuse they experienced from other Jehovah’s Witnesses.