UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail
Jehovah’s Witness leaders ordered to give evidence in sex scandal trial after claiming they had a ‘duty to God not to breach confidence’
By ANNA EDWARDS
Church elders refused to comment on a child abuse scandal because they had a ‘duty to God’ to keep the sex attacker’s confession a secret, a court heard.
Jehovah Witness ministerial servant Gordon Leighton admitted sexually abusing a child when he was confronted with allegations before elders at his church,Newcastle Crown Court heard.
But during the official police investigation the 53-year-old, who hit the headlines in the 1990s when his wife Yvonne, 28, died after refusing a blood transfusion after childbirth on religious grounds, denied any illegal wrongdoing.
When detectives asked elders Simon Preyser, Harry Logan and David Scott to make statements about the confession, all three refused and said what they had heard was confidential.
The elders knew about the admissions for three years, but refused to cooperate with the criminal investigation, the court heard.
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