Authorities charge 5 more in probe of child sexual abuse among Jehovah’s Witnesses in Pennsylvania
Date Shared:
November 14th, 2023
Date Released:
July 7th, 2023
Source:
apnews.com
Excerpt
- A Pennsylvania grand jury investigating child sexual abuse in the Jehovah’s Witnesses community has charged five more people with raping or molesting children as young as 4, the latest developments in an ongoing probe that has identified 14 suspects.
- Martin Haugh of York Haven, Pa., a former elder who left the church in 2016 and now advocates for survivors of abuse in the church, applauded investigators.
“I hope elders are arrested who knew about child abuse and covered it up and then it happened again,” said Haugh, who testified to the grand jury about the church’s structure and about his own daughter’s abuse within a Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation.
- In the charges announced Friday, Henry said that the men had groomed or gained access to the children through the church, sometimes when the child’s family took the person into their home. One person said that she was raped 50 or more times between the ages of 7 and 12 by a church member who was 18 when the assaults began. Others involved less serious charges of inappropriate touching.
- One of the nine earlier defendants killed himself before he was arrested, Henry said.
apnews.com