UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Echo
‘It was a cover up’: Woman sexually-abused by leading member of Jehovah’s Witness community speaks out
by Will Frampton
A WOMAN who was sexually abused as a child by her brother-in-law has blamed her old church for covering up the crime.
Helen Doe was abused by Barry Furlong, a former ministerial servant in the Kinson Jehovah’s Witness community and husband to her sister Kim, at a family gathering when she was 10 years old.
Furlong, then in his 30s, assaulted her and later told her that if she said anything she would not get into the ‘New Order’ – a term for Jesus’ supposed Second Coming.
Furlong, 69, has been jailed for five years and three months after being found guilty of sexually assaulting four different victims during the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
Mrs Doe, who has waived her right to anonymity, said she had told her parents about the abuse three years later, but rather than contacting police they had gone to the church elders who accused her of making it up.
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