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Child safeguarding · Claim record

The Watchtower of 1 November 1995 instructed that where an accusation of abuse is denied and there is no second witness, elders should explain 'that nothing more can be done in a judicial way' and 'the congregation will continue to view the one accused as an innocent person'.

Claim ID claim-safeguarding-1995-innocent-personConcerns 1 November 1995Explicit statement
Explicit statement · 1 November 1995 Verified

The Watchtower of 1 November 1995 instructed that where an accusation of abuse is denied and there is no second witness, elders should explain 'that nothing more can be done in a judicial way' and 'the congregation will continue to view the one accused as an innocent person'. The Watchtower, 1 November 1995Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, October 2016

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The passage sits in a discussion of 'repressed memories'; the organisation's 2019 article now says the absence of a second witness 'does not mean that the one making the accusation is untruthful' ( par. 16).

Show the evidence (2 sources)
Primary JW publication Verified

The Watchtower, “Comfort for Those With a "Stricken Spirit"”

1 November 1995 · pp.25-29 · section 'Repressed Memories', par. beginning 'If the accusation is denied' · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“If the accusation is denied, the elders should explain to the accuser that nothing more can be done in a judicial way. And the congregation will continue to view the one accused as an innocent person. The Bible says that there must be two or three witnesses before judicial action can be taken. (2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19)”

Written in the context of adults recovering 'repressed memories' of childhood abuse; instructs elders what to do when only one accuser exists and the accused denies it. The Royal Commission cited this article as still informing procedure in 2015 (Case Study 29 report p. 25, p. 64).

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Opened wol.jw.org page (marker 'w95 11/1 pp. 25-29') and confirmed wording. Note wol gives pp. 25-29, not 26-29 as in the brief.

Corroborated by. src-arc-2016-1000-cs29-report

Notes. The article does not mention reporting to police or civil authorities.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-w-1995-1101-stricken-spirit

Official public record Verified

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, “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”

October 2016 · pp.1-110 (ISBN 978-1-925289-89-3) · pp. 10-12, 14, 24-25, 58-70, 75-78 · The Hon. Justice Peter McClellan AM (Chair); Professor Helen Milroy (Commissioner) · Commonwealth of Australia

“Although the position is not clear in relation to a few files, 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.”

P. 60. Other key passages: p. 58 (files since 1950 record allegations against 1,006 members; 579 admissions; at least 1,800 alleged victims); p. 59 ('The numbers tell their own story'); p. 61 ('We are satisfied that it is the general practice of the Jehovah's Witness organisation in Australia not to report allegations of child sexual abuse to the police or other authorities unless required to do so by law'); p. 65 (two-witness rule: 'retention of and continued application of the rule to a complaint of child sexual abuse is wrong'); p. 67 (men-only decision-making is 'a fundamental flaw'); p. 69 ('places children within the organisation at significant risk'); p. 70 (BCG 'completely shunned, ostracised and actively avoided'); p. 77 ('We do not consider the Jehovah's Witness organisation to be an organisation which responds adequately to child sexual abuse').

Official source Scan of original Link not auto-checkable

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. The official Royal Commission host could not be reached from this environment (TLS renegotiation failure / timeouts), so the NZ-hosted copy of the same Commonwealth publication was downloaded and text-extracted; all quotations verbatim with printed page numbers. Tabled in Parliament 28 November 2016.

Scan provenance. Copy of the Commonwealth publication (CC BY 3.0 AU) held in the New Zealand Abuse in Care Royal Commission evidence library; identical ISBN and pagination to the official release.

Corroborated by. src-wt-subs-2015-1109-royal-commission, src-arc-2015-0814-day155-transcript

Notes. Public hearing 27 July-5 August and 14 August 2015, Sydney. Survivors identified only as BCG and BCB. Also on parlinfo.aph.gov.au as a tabled paper.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-arc-2016-1000-cs29-report

Claim page

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