PENNSYLVANIA
York Dispatch
By CHRISTINA KAUFFMAN 505-5436 / @ydyorkcountyyorkdispatch.com
Updated: 04/05/2013
She looks pretty tough now, sporting big hoop earrings and a spiked, two-toned faux hawk.
But 20 years ago, Stephanie Fessler was a vulnerable 4-year-old girl told she was to blame for being sexually assaulted by a male congregation member at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
She was 14 the second time it happened. This time, it came at the hands of a 50-year-old woman from the church. Fessler said she was given the same punishment as her abuser.
“I was publicly reproved (disgraced) at a church meeting,” Fessler said Thursday after speaking about the abuse in public for the first time. “Because she was a woman, I should’ve known better. It was against the church …”
The 24-year-old West York woman was one of a few sexual assault survivors to share their stories Thursday for the kickoff ceremony for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
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