AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Elders from Jehovah’s Witness congregations in Queensland and Western Australia will be asked on Tuesday what they did when young women alleged they were sexually abused by respected church members.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is entering the second day of a two-week hearing into the church which shuns secular society and encourages its members to live according to rules based on a first-century interpretation of the Bible.

On Monday the commission was told there were 1006 allegations of child sex abuse by Jehovah’s Witnesses since 1950 and not one of them was reported to police by the church authorities.

Angus Stewart, SC counsel for the commission said the hearing would consider if the Jehovah’s Witnesses Church practice of not reporting serious allegations to secular authorities left its members open to being charged for concealing crimes.