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Washington Jehovah's Witness Jailed for 13 Years for Vile Child Sex Attacks

Chronicle
August 23, 2013

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/washington-jehovahs-witness-jailed-13-5780371

Gordon Leighton, a ministerial servant, at the Lambton Kingdom Hall in Washington, was convicted of a series of sexual assaults against one child

Gordon Leighton

A Jehovah's Witness is today beginning 13 years behind bars for horrific child sex crimes which church elders tried to cover up.

Gordon Leighton, a ministerial servant, at the Lambton Kingdom Hall in Washington, was convicted of a series of sexual assaults against one child and violent attacks on another, following a trial.

It emerged that the 53-year-old had confessed his sex crimes to church elders more than three years earlier, but the men refused to co-operate with the police investigation and only gave evidence at court after a judge brought a lengthy legal battle.

Now Leighton will be on the sex offenders’ register for life.

Jailing him yesterday at Newcastle Crown Court, Judge Penny Moreland told Leighton he had stolen his victims’ childhood years, saying: “You abused them, ruined their childhood, and caused untold damage.”

Leighton, of Wigeon Close in Ayton, Washington, hit the headlines in the 1990s when his wife Yvonne, 28, died as a result of refusing a blood transfusion after childbirth, on religious grounds.

When allegations of his sexual abuse of a girl emerged, his church called a special meeting, aimed at “keeping the congregation clean”, in which Leighton was confronted by church elders.

The pervert admitted the sexual abuse and made excuses for his behaviour.

But when detectives asked elders Simon Preyser, Harry Logan and David Scott to make statements, they refused.

When the elders were summonsed to court to give evidence, they launched a court battle in a bid to get out of testifying.

Their barrister Richard Daniels said the men had a “duty to God” not to breach confidence.

At an earlier hearing he said: “Privileged communication between members of the congregation and ministers is an absolute right and duty and there is no power in law to breach such a confidence.”

But Judge Moreland ordered that the men must reveal what they had heard. The churchmen still refused to make statements to police until hours before they were called as witnesses.

Leighton, who was expelled from the Church, was convicted of eight counts of indecency with a child, three indecent assault charges against one victim, and charges of child cruelty, grievous bodily harm and actual bodily harm, against another.

He was jailed for a total of 13 years, given a sexual offences prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.

 

 

 

 

 




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