"Jehovah’s Witnesses told girl's parents not to report abuse" - The Daily Telegraph newspaper

[Jack Ryan]

An article in the PRINT edition of The Daily Telegraph, a respected British national 'quality' newspaper - around 380,000 copies are distributed daily.

• Man's sex offence was kept quiet after Jehovah's Witness elders persuaded victim's parents not to go to police

• Jehovah's Witness elders told abused girl's parents not to report sex offender, court told

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JehovahÂ’s Witnesses told girlÂ’s parents not to report abuse

The Daily Telegraph (UK), Tuesday, June 5, 2018 - page 10

JehovahÂ’s Witnesses allowed a paedophile to abuse children by telling parents of a two-year-old he assaulted not to report his actions, a court heard.

Robert LeeÂ’s crime in the Forest of Dean, Glos, went unpunished for 23 years because elders of the church persuaded her parents to keep quiet. The victimÂ’s family and Lee were JehovahÂ’s Witnesses, Gloucester Crown Court heard. Kerry Barker, prosecuting, told the court that Lee, formerly of Coleford, Glos, but now of Bradford, went on to commit more child sex offences in 2008 and 2016.

Lee assaulted the two-year-old girl twice in March 1995 in Coleford when he was 17. Sentencing Lee to two years in jail suspended for two years, Judge Ian Lawrie QC said he was “concerned” at the church’s advice not to report him. In a statement, the victim said she was “angry with her mother for being a Jehovah’s Witness and not reporting it”.