Nora believes that Jehovah’s Witness children are vulnerable because of the nature of the religion
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Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Nora was brought up as a Jehovah’s Witness. She was unofficially fostered by a member of the church, who sexually abused her over 10 years.
She gives a powerful written account of her ordeal, and the control the church exerts over children.
Nora explains that her mother had a serious mental illness and found it hard to cope with raising her two daughters. A couple in the Jehovah’s Witness church befriended the family, and persuaded Nora’s mother to hand over her children to their care, until she recovered.
When Nora was four years old, she and her sister went to live with the couple – a man named Rodney and his wife. There were two other adult relatives living in the same house. She says that the promised return home never happened; instead the couple stopped her and her sister seeing their mother.
Nora thinks that Rodney began sexually abusing her soon after she arrived, and this continued until she was in her early teens when she left their home. Certainly, she says, ‘I cannot remember a time whilst I was there that I was not abused’.
She explains that the abuse started when her sister was crying at night. She was moved to sleep with Rodney’s wife and he came into Nora’s room. She says that at the time she did not know what he was doing or have the words to explain it, but she now explains that he made her watch him masturbate, and masturbate him. He also told her that one day he would be able to rape her, but she says ‘fortunately’ that never happened.
He abused her a few times a week, every week, for about 10 years. It took place at home, in his car and on holiday. Nora believes the other adults in the house must have known, but ‘turned a blind eye’.
Nora explains how desperate and trapped she felt. She says ‘I remember saying a little prayer not to wake up in the morning as I really did not want to be there and there was no way out’.
She found comfort in going to school, where the teachers were kind, and she often stayed late to help tidy up so she could avoid going home. However, she was also isolated because she was not allowed to take part in activities, or play with any friends out of school.
When Nora was in her early teens, she was able to move out of Rodney’s house, and she later told her stepmother about the sexual abuse she had suffered. They went together to report it to the police; Nora gave a statement but they did not proceed with the case.
Nora describes the terrible effects of the way she was treated as a child. She says ‘My past is filled with sadness – emotional, physical and sexual abuse – and my present is filled with pain, fatigue, lack of sleep and anxiety’.
She says that social services never once checked that she and her sister were safe and well with their self-appointed guardians and she feels they were ‘just forgotten about’.
She believes that the abuse by Rodney was reported to the Elders in the church, but all that happened was that some of his ‘privileges’ were taken away.
Nora feels there is a pressing need for vigilance over the safety and wellbeing of children brought up as Jehovah’s Witnesses. She says ‘The religion teaches them to be submissive and to never express any worries or doubts’.
She adds ‘It is very difficult to understand how the Jehovah’s Witness’s life differs to any other child, if you have not been brought up in it’. She describes how children are expected to sit silently and obediently, they are never praised and physical punishments are frequent.
She has had counselling and completed a degree, and she says ‘I try my hardest to make the best of my life’.