Carrie-Ann firmly believes that it should be mandatory to report child sexual abuse
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Carrie-Ann was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and was sexually abused by family members.
She believes the religion she grew up with enables and protects abusers.
Carrie-Ann was sexually abused by her father. The abuse began when she was about eight years old, and continued for two years.
She remembers telling her sibling about the abuse. Her sibling told their mother, who went to see the elders of the Jehovah’s Witness congregation. Some of the elders spoke to Carrie-Ann about her allegation.
She was self-harming and the elders suggested this was allowing demons to enter her and causing her to think she was being abused.
Carrie-Ann explains it was usual practice for Jehovah’s Witnesses to avoid mainstream services. ‘No one else came to see me, no child protection, no social services’ she says.
After her father left, Carrie-Ann was emotionally abused by her mother. ‘She was very controlling and used her religion as a justification for her control … I was incredibly isolated’ she says.
Carrie-Ann was taken out of school and home-schooled, and not allowed to have any friends outside the Jehovah’s Witness religion.
When she was in her early teens, her mother had to go into hospital, and she was sent to stay with a family friend, Jules. Carrie-Ann confided in her about some of the ways her mother behaved.
This included applying cream to her genitals, watching her bathing, and masturbating in front of her. Jules explained that this was sexual abuse. She was also a Jehovah’s Witness and she reported what Carrie-Ann had told her to the elders of her congregation.
Carrie-Ann had known that the things her mother did made her uncomfortable, but she didn’t realise it was sexual abuse.
A meeting took place between Carrie-Ann’s mother, Jules and elders from both their congregations. Later there was an altercation at Jules’ house, and Carrie-Ann was taken into emergency foster care.
She remembers being video interviewed, but she is not sure if she spoke about the sexual abuse by her father. No proceedings were taken against either of her parents. ‘I remember a police officer coming to see me to explain there was not enough evidence to take it forward’ she says, adding that she is not surprised they said this.
Carrie-Ann remained in care until she was in her mid teens. She had a number of different placements and says she was never able to establish a trusting relationship with anyone before she was moved again. Carrie-Ann did not receive any counselling or support, and although she was told she would have a psychiatric assessment, this did not happen.
During this time she was allocated a social worker, who was a Jehovah’s Witness in the same congregation as her mother. Carrie-Ann says this means her social worker saw her mother several times a week at the Kingdom Hall.
The social worker strongly implied several times that Carrie-Ann was making up the allegations of abuse, and once said to Carrie-Ann ‘You know how Jehovah feels about liars’.
Carrie-Ann says ‘Unless you have been brought up a Jehovah’s Witness, you don’t understand how powerful that sentence was’.
She self-harmed for many years but has recently stopped. She has an eating disorder and experiences anxiety, flashbacks and depression. She has misused drugs.
Carrie-Ann feels very strongly that the Jehovah's Witness religion does not protect children, and even facilitates abusers because they try to deal with allegations of abuse within the community.
She adds that the church’s rule that there must be two witnesses to prove a wrongdoing makes it almost impossible for a child disclosing abuse to be believed. She says that elders who have tried to protect children have been thrown out of the church.
She describes the huge fear that Jehovah’s Witnesses have of being disobedient or rebellious, or bringing shame to the church. She adds that members of the congregation are discouraged from seeking outside help with any issues. ‘They learn that anything that is not from Jehovah is from Satan. Until I was an adult and realised I had been raised in a cult I wouldn’t have talked to anyone’ she says.
Carrie-Ann feels that professionals, like her social worker, who have personal association with a family should not be involved in any cases that concern them. She feels that it was probably well-intentioned to provide her with a social worker of the same religion, but it was in fact not in her interest.
She feels strongly that there should be a legal obligation to report allegations of child sexual abuse.
Carrie-Ann has reported her abuse to the police again, and they are investigating her case. She is working to encourage more victims and survivors of abuse in the Jehovah’s Witness church to come forward.