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Child safeguarding · Claim record

In A v Trustees of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society [2015] EWHC 1722 (QB), the High Court held the organisation and two Loughborough congregations vicariously liable for a ministerial servant's abuse of a child in 1989-1994 and for elders' failure in 1990 to protect her after learning he had abused another child.

Claim ID claim-safeguarding-a-v-watchtower-vicarious-liabilityConcerns 19 June 2015Outcome
Outcome · 19 June 2015 Verified

In A v Trustees of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society [2015] EWHC 1722 (QB), the High Court held the organisation and two Loughborough congregations vicariously liable for a ministerial servant's abuse of a child in 1989-1994 and for elders' failure in 1990 to protect her after learning he had abused another child. High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, 19 June 2015Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), 2 September 2021

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The defendants contested both vicarious liability and limitation; Globe J found a fair trial remained possible and that the abuse was 'inextricably interwoven' with his duties.

Show the evidence (2 sources)
Official public record Verified

High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, “A v The Trustees of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and others [2015] EWHC 1722 (QB) (HQ13X01985)”

19 June 2015 · paras 25, 90, 91 ff., final paragraph · Mr Justice Globe · Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (approved judgment)

“he was ostensibly performing his duties as a Jehovah's Witness ministerial servant. I am satisfied that the progressive acts of intimacy were only possible because he had the actual or ostensible status of a ministerial servant that meant no one who saw him questioned his being alone with the claimant. ... In such circumstances, in my judgment, it is fair and just to hold the defendants to be vicariously liable for his acts.”

Para 90. The claimant was abused between about 1989 and 1994 (aged about four to nine) by a ministerial servant in the Loughborough congregations (named in the judgment, which records that he has since died), who was later 'arrested and later convicted of and imprisoned for sexually abusing' two other children (para 25). Globe J also upheld the 'safeguarding claim' that elders who learned in 1990 of his abuse of another child failed to take reasonable steps to protect her, and gave judgment for the claimant with quantum to be agreed. The trial was heard 3-16 February 2015 under an anonymity order.

Official source Scan of original Link not auto-checkable

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Approved judgment opened in full (chambers copy) and quoted verbatim; provenance is a barristers' chambers rather than BAILII, so the text is an approved-judgment copy rather than an official law-report transcript.

Scan provenance. Copy of the approved judgment (31 pp., neutral citation and 'Approved Judgment' header) hosted by Outer Temple Chambers, chambers of the claimant's counsel. BAILII was unreachable from this environment.

Corroborated by. src-iicsa-2021-0902-religious-organisations-report

Notes. IICSA (Part B) treated this claimant, anonymised as PR-A5, as a core witness. The judgment anonymises the claimant, and so does this site.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-ewhc-2015-0619-a-v-watchtower

Official public record Verified

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), “Child protection in religious organisations and settings: Investigation Report”

2 September 2021 · pp.Part B para 15.4 (p. 15); Part D paras 19-21 (pp. 42-43); Part E paras 6.3-7 (pp. 65-66); Part F para 17 (pp. 91-92); Part H para 25 (p. 113) · Part H.1 para 25 · Professor Alexis Jay OBE (Chair) and Panel · Crown copyright (HC 705)

“The rule is not intended to be a safeguarding measure. Nevertheless, it has no place in any response to child sexual abuse and fails to reflect the reality that by its very nature child sexual abuse is most often perpetrated in the absence of witnesses. ... As it presently operates, the Jehovah's Witnesses internal disciplinary process for disfellowshipping members bears no relationship to how sexual crime happens. The continuing use of this rule shows a disregard of the seriousness of the crimes involved and their impact on individuals. It also lacks compassion for the victim, and serves to protect the perpetrator.”

Part H.1 Conclusions, para 25 (p. 113). Part B para 15.4: over 131,700 members in England and Wales; records showed allegations concerning 67 individuals reported to the Branch Office in the previous ten years, including 25 against elders and 32 against ministerial servants. Part D para 19 lists the four core policy documents (2018 public statement; Watchtower May 2019; Shepherd the Flock of God; Guidelines for Branch Office Service Desks) and notes that the two documents that explain how to refer matters to statutory authorities 'are not circulated to members of the congregation'. Part E para 6.4: the Service Department 'does not make reports to the statutory authorities'. Part E para 7: Lancashire County Council v E & F [2020] EWHC 182 (Fam) — elders told in 2016, police not informed until July 2019; Lieven J spoke of 'very great concern about the safeguarding of children within the Jehovah's Witness community'. Part F para 17: the Charity Commission's Harvey Grenville called the level of legal challenge 'simply unprecedented'.

Official source Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. gov.uk PDF downloaded and text-extracted; all quotations verbatim with printed page numbers. iicsa.org.uk HTML pages returned 403 to automated fetch.

Scan provenance. gov.uk copy of the report (224-page PDF). Printed page numbers are 14 lower than PDF page numbers.

Corroborated by. src-cc-2023-0804-watch-tower-inquiry-report

Notes. Published 2 September 2021 after 16 hearing days in 2020. IICSA made two recommendations (policy/training; unregistered educational settings); neither is JW-specific.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-iicsa-2021-0902-religious-organisations-report

Claim page

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-safeguarding-a-v-watchtower-vicarious-liability/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.