Investigation Claims Jehovah Witnesses’ Watchtower Is Hiding Child Sexual Abuse Claims, Yeshivah abuse victim says scholarship was removed after he reported rape, Royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, Rabbi pleads guilty to taping nude women at ritual bath

Investigation Claims Jehovah Witnesses’ Watchtower Is Hiding Child Sexual Abuse Claims
The Huffington Post By Kira Brekke   02/18/2015

Evelyn Selimaj, 30, left, of East Haven and her sister Sybelle Almodovar, 35, of North Guilford hold a photograph of themselves together with their brother Ferdinand Almodovar that was taken about the time that the three siblings say they began to be sexually abused by a ministerial servant who acted as a church leader in their congregation. They were child members of the New Haven East Spanish Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation. In October 2014 in New Haven, Connecticut, their attorneys filed ch

A new report out of the Center for Investigative Reporting claims that the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ parent organization in the United States has systematically hidden child sexual abuse cases for more than 25 years.

Trey Bundy, the Reveal journalist behind the report, explained to HuffPost Live on Tuesday that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York has issued detailed memos since 1989 mandating spiritual leaders to immediately report any allegations of child abuse to the Watchtower’s legal department before the police.

“Essentially what they say is, ‘You don’t need to call police unless state law requires you to, and we’ll determine if that’s the case.’ They say not to warn other members of the congregation if you have a child abuser in your congregation, that’s confidential information,” Bundy told host Alyona Minkovski. “And they also … lay out a very sort of convoluted process for determining whether or not you’re even going to take child abuse seriously.”

But in the “many times” Jehovah’s Witnesses have been sued in civil court by alleged victims of abuse, Bundy explained, the freedom of religion has been invoked to protect them….

In a statement to Bundy in his article, Watchtower representatives defended the organization’s practices regarding abuse.

Watchtower officials say they instruct their members to obey state laws. Their policy memos direct elders who hear of alleged child abuse to “contact the Society’s Legal Department immediately” to learn whether the laws in their states require them to notify police….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/18/jehovahs-witness-child-sex-abuse_n_6705852.html

Yeshivah abuse victim says scholarship was removed after he reported rape
Victim of jailed abuser David Cyprys says principal Rabbi Abraham Glick cancelled the award after telling him of incidents, royal commission hears
Yeshiva college
Rabbi Pinchus Feldman did not alert police when the alleged abuser said he might leave the country.

Melissa Davey Monday 9 February 2015

A child sex abuse victim who was repeatedly raped by a staff member of an Orthodox Jewish school said he was stripped of his scholarship when he told the principal what happened.

The victim, identified only as AVR, said a security guard at the Yeshivah centre and college in Melbourne, David Cyprys, raped him multiple times.

Cyprys was convicted of those offences in 2013, and is in jail….

His mother immediately flew to Melbourne see him, and together they reported the abuse to the principal of the school, Rabbi Abraham Glick, and the director, Rabbi David Groner, who is now dead.

“Rabbi Glick said my scholarship had been cancelled from that time,” AVR said. “I feel Rabbi Glick and Yeshivah did not want me there any more. They did not offer help or counselling. No one at Yeshivah would speak to us or help us. Even our own family members would not help us, and we had a lot of trouble getting back to the airport.”….

Cyprys was “a serial abuser of children”, the commission heard last Monday. AVR said his mother had stopped treatment for her cancer when she came to Melbourne to rescue him from Cyprys, and that she passed away a few years later, in 1995….

Last week, other victims told the commission how they were ignored by senior religious leaders within the orthodox Yeshivah community after reporting their abuse, and of being verbally abused and ostracised….
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/feb/09/yeshivah-abuse-victim-says-scholarship-was-removed-after-he-reported

Royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse
Latest news on Australia’s royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse
February 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/royal-commission-into-institutional-responses-to-child-sexual-abuse

Rabbi pleads guilty to taping nude women at ritual bath
February 19, 2015 By JESSICA GRESKO

WASHINGTON (AP) — A prominent Orthodox rabbi acknowledged Thursday that for years he videotaped women in a changing room of a Jewish ritual bath, ultimately recording approximately 150 nude women.

Barry Freundel pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism during a hearing at D.C. Superior Court. Each count is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

Freundel’s attorney, Jeffrey Harris, acknowledged after the hearing that it was unlikely that his client would get a 52-year sentence but declined to say what sentence he would seek at a hearing set for May 15. Harris said his client was taking responsibility for his actions and was looking to move on with his life….

Freundel, 63, was a rabbi at the Kesher Israel synagogue in Washington for more than 25 years before his arrest in October on voyeurism charges. As part of the plea agreement Freundel entered into Thursday, he acknowledged that starting in 2009 he set up hidden recording devices in a changing and showering area of The National Capital Mikvah, a ritual cleansing bath affiliated with Kesher Israel. He acknowledged he secretly videotaped women who were partially or totally undressed before or after they showered.
http://helenair.com/news/national/rabbi-pleads-guilty-to-taping-nude-women-at-ritual-bath/article_0e282e91-f2cf-5966-9ccc-183bde2797f6.html

MI5 accused of covering up sexual abuse at boys’ home, Did leaders of Jehovah’s Witnesses cover up child sex abuse

MI5 accused of covering up sexual abuse at boys’ home
Court case to address alleged cover-up of British state involvement at the Kincora children’s home in Northern Ireland

Vikram Dodd and Richard Norton-Taylor

Sunday 15 February 2015

MI5 is facing allegations it was complicit in the sexual abuse of children, the high court in Northern Ireland will hear on Tuesday.

Victims of the abuse are taking legal action to force a full independent inquiry with the power to compel witnesses to testify and the security service to hand over documents.

The case, in Belfast, is the first in court over the alleged cover-up of British state involvement at the Kincora children’s home in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. It is also the first of the recent sex abuse cases allegedly tying in the British state directly. Victims allege that the cover-up over Kincora has lasted decades….

Amnesty International branded Kincora “one of the biggest scandals of our age” and backed the victims’ calls for an inquiry with full powers: “There are longstanding claims that MI5 blocked one or more police investigations into Kincora in the 1970s in order to protect its own intelligence-gathering operation, a terrible indictment which raises the spectre of countless vulnerable boys having faced further years of brutal abuse….

Children are alleged to have suffered sustained sexual abuse after being taken from the east Belfast children’s home, run by a member of a Protestant paramilitary organisation, to be offered to men.

Lawyers for the victims will argue in court that “there is credible evidence (and it is therefore arguable) that the security forces and security services were aware of the abuse, permitted it to continue and colluded in protecting the individuals involved from investigation or prosecution”, according to papers lodged with the Belfast high court….

Three men were jailed for their part in abuse at Kincora in 1981, but attempts to establish the truth about British state involvement have been blocked. It has persistently been alleged that William McGrath, Kincora’s housemaster and the leader of an extreme evangelical Protestant group called Tara, was an informant for British intelligence. McGrath was jailed for sexual offences in 1981 and is now dead.

There have been limited inquiries into Kincora, but officers of the former Royal Ulster Constabulary, army intelligence officers, a former Northern Ireland ombudsman, and the judges conducting those earlier inquiries all said the truth about what went on there – and why it was allowed to continue for so many years – had been suppressed.

RUC officers were repeatedly refused permission in the 1980s to interview a senior MI5 official about the affair….
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/15/mi5-kincora-childrens-home-northwen-ireland-sexual-abuse

Did leaders of Jehovah’s Witnesses cover up child sex abuse
February 16, 2015
In San Francisco, a woman is suing the Jehovah’s Witnesses for failing to protect her from a known child abuser when she was a child. The Center for Investigative Reporting has shed light on accusations that religious leaders led a cover-up of child sex abuse. Special correspondent Trey Bundy of the CIR’s Reveal reports on how the organization is using the first amendment to fight these charges.

GWEN IFILL: Next: an investigation into child sexual abuse among Jehovah’s Witness and accusations that religious leaders led a cover-up within inside some of the group’s 14,000 U.S. congregations….

TREY BUNDY: The case hinges on letters from Jehovah’s Witness leaders to the heads of local congregations. For almost 20 years, they have ordered them to send reports like this one for every known child abuser, to hide these cases from their congregations, and not to cooperate with law enforcement or the courts, unless instructed to.

They have refused judges’ orders to turn over these abuse reports, so no one knows how many cases like Conti’s are out there.

JAMES MCCABE, Jehovah’s Witnesses lawyer: Jehovah’s Witnesses abhor child abuse of any form.

TREY BUNDY: The Jehovah’s Witnesses insist that they comply with the law. And their lawyers argue that the First Amendment gives them the right to set child abuse policies as they see fit….

TREY BUNDY: Clarke never called the police. He followed Watchtower protocol. He wrote to New York headquarters, asking how to deal with Kendrick’s confession. They told him not to investigate the matter further.

Instead they said, “Provide him with strong scriptural counsel to avoid a repetition of such a serious offense.”

MICHAEL CLARKE: We don’t make that public to the congregation. It’s confidential.

TREY BUNDY: The elders didn’t warn other members that one of their own was a child abuser.

MAN: And that’s the policy and the practice of Jehovah’s Witnesses that you learned as an elder, correct?

MICHAEL CLARKE: Yes.

TREY BUNDY: Clarke says the elders told Kendrick not to be alone with children. But he was still allowed to join in congregation activities that included minors. A year later, one of those minors was Candace Conti….

TREY BUNDY: When Kendrick moved to the Oakley congregation, no one was told he was a child molester, not even Roger Bentley, who served as an elder there for 30 years. He reviewed this letter of introduction from Kendrick’s old congregation.

ROGER BENTLEY, Former Elder, Oakley Congregation: There’s no indication at all that he’s guilty of child abuse.

TREY BUNDY: So no mention of child abuse, but any mention of children?

ROGER BENTLEY: Well, if you read it, it very specifically says he’s a very interesting individual who has taken the lead with some young ones in the congregation and helped them from veering off course….

TREY BUNDY: The courts continue to grapple with the question: Should freedom of religion outweigh the responsibility to protect children?

In Candace Conti’s case, the jury overrode the First Amendment claims and decided the Watchtower and the North Fremont congregation were negligent and didn’t adequately protect her from abuse.

Kendrick maintains he never molested her. Pending appeal, she was awarded more than $15 million in compensation and damages. It’s the first time a jury has ordered the Watchtower to pay for its child abuse policies.

But for Kendrick’s other victim, her case against the Watchtower was thrown out. Even though Kendrick confessed to the abuse in this deposition and served about eight months in jail, the judge affirmed that the Watchtower’s policies were protected by the First Amendment. It wasn’t liable because the abuse occurred at home and not in the course of religious activity. The Watchtower had no obligation to warn the family about Kendrick’s past.

Kendrick is now free and still an active member of the Oakley congregation….
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/leaders-jehovahs-witnesses-cover-child-sex-abuse/

Jehovah’s Witnesses under fire from former congregants who say child sex abuse was hushed, See Haunting Photos of the Sites of Child Abuse

Jehovah’s Witnesses under fire from former congregants who say child sex abuse was hushed

$10.5 Million Lawsuit Against Jehovah’s Witnesses Organizations Velicia Alston, who says she was molested as a child, wants to change the way Jehovah’s Witnesses’ leadership responds to child sexual abuse.
By Aimee Green December 01, 2014

Two people who say that as children they were sexually abused by a leader in a Hillsboro Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation filed a $10.5 million lawsuit Monday – among the first in Oregon to accuse the religious organization of hiding decades of sexual abuse.

Attorneys for Velicia Alston, 39, and an unnamed man said the Jehovah’s Witnesses leadership continues to cover up sexual abuse against children by leaders. They say it is more than a decade behind other organizations, such as the Catholic Church, that have been forced to address their problems through many years of civil litigation.

“There is a crisis of silence in the Jehovah’s Witness organization,” said Irwin Zalkin, one of several attorneys representing Alston and the man. Zalkin described the religious organization as “more concerned about protecting its reputation than it is about protecting its children.”

For example, Zalkin said the seven men who make up the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Governing Body have a policy requiring a confession from the perpetrator or two eyewitnesses to the abuse before leaders will take any action.

“Even if they do disfellowship a perpetrator, they don’t tell the congregation why,” Zalkin said during a news conference Monday in Portland. “No one but the elders can ever know that there is a child predator lurking in that congregation.”

Zalkin said Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders don’t call police. Rather, Zalkin said, they take the position that although Oregon law defines clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse, they don’t need to report the abuse because it was a privileged religious communication…..
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/12/jehovahs_witnesses_under_fire.html

See Haunting Photos of the Sites of Child Abuse
Richard Conway
The very ordinariness of both the context and the location of child abuse in Ireland struck photographer Kim Haughton as profoundly disturbing.

In a damning 2009 report, Ireland’s independently-run Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse – which spent nine years investigating thousands of allegations of abuse at religious-run institutions – spoke of a culture of “endemic sexual abuse” in the country’s Catholic boys’ schools and of the “deferential and submissive attitude” of the Irish state towards the religious orders who ran them.

What emerged from the investigation, and from a separate Dublin-specific inquiry concluded the same year, was that institutional child abuse was widespread and that it had occurred not only in schools, but in many places where young people were in the care of religious orders. The commissions also revealed that very often when children reported the abuse, they were largely ignored and even punished, with many of the adult perpetrators being relocated to new parishes by church officials. The state, too, had willfully turned a blind eye….
https://time.com/3608071/see-haunting-photos-of-the-sites-of-child-abuse/

Jehovah’s Witnesses Church to pay $13.5M for alleged child abuse, Child abuse survivors tell Theresa May: inquiry must have full force of law

Jehovah’s Witnesses Church to pay $13.5M for alleged child abuse
November 1, 2014 by Ellina Abovian

SAN DIEGO — Jose Lopez was awarded a $13.5 million judgment Wednesday from the head of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Church for alleged sexual abuse by Gonzalo Campos of the Linda Vista Spanish Congregation and Playa Pacifica in Pacific Beach.

Lopez, 36, claims that the abuse began around 1986, when his mother enrolled him at age 7 in bible study classes with Campos….

Lopez’s mother went to the heads of the congregation but said that the allegations were overlooked.

“If they don’t get a confession from the perpetrator or they don’t get two eye witnesses to the abuse…under their policies and practices, they will do nothing,” Zalkin said.

After years of staying quiet, Lopez filed a lawsuit against Campos and the church in 2012.

He is one of eight children who have accused Campos of sexually abusing them between 1982 and 1995, according to his lawsuit against the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, the entity that oversees Jehovah’s Witnesses churches.

During the litigation, the head church in New York refused to provide documents and witnesses, Zalkin said….

Associate General Counsel for Watchtower Mario Moreno commented in a statement: “Jehovah’s Witnesses abhor child abuse and strive to protect children from such acts. The trial judge’s decision is a drastic action for any judge to take given the circumstances of this case. We will seek a full review of this case on appeal.”

Zalkin said Campos moved to Mexico soon after allegations against him began to surface….
http://fox5sandiego.com/2014/11/01/jehovahs-witnesses-church-ordered-to-pay-13-5m-for-alleged-child-abuse/

Child abuse survivors tell Theresa May: inquiry must have full force of law
Victims call for Fiona Woolf’s successor to be given statutory powers over witnesses and evidence  Child protection  The Observer  Jamie Doward and Daniel Boffey Saturday 1 November 2014

Home secretary Theresa May is coming under new pressure to redraft the terms of the independent inquiry into child abuse so that it has powers to compel witnesses to give evidence and see those who give false statements prosecuted.

The potentially huge shift in the scope and the nature of the inquiry, hinted at by government-appointed lawyers to the inquiry when they met survivors of abuse on Friday, would go some way to addressing concerns that it will be little more than a whitewash.

The current inquiry has been plunged into chaos after its second chair, Fiona Woolf, resigned on Friday after accepting that abuse survivors had lost confidence in her ability to conduct the investigation impartially. Her resignation followed concerns over her links with the former home secretary, Lord Brittan, who has been accused of failing to act on a dossier of paedophile allegations in the 1980s. Woolf’s departure was a huge blow for the government after the inquiry’s previous chair, Baroness Butler-Sloss, also quit.

The former attorney general, Dominic Grieve MP, said on Saturday that May might need to look abroad for someone to chair the inquiry into historical child sex abuse, in order for the victims to have full confidence that it is independent of the British establishment….
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/01/child-abuse-theresa-may-inquiry-fiona-woolf

Rise in ritual child abuse cases linked to WITCHCRAFT reported to police, Where Are the Victims of Human Trafficking Taken?, Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Child Sex Abuse Cases Bring Religion’s Practices Into Question

– Shocking rise in ritual child abuse cases linked to WITCHCRAFT reported to police
– Rwanda: Where Are the Victims of Human Trafficking Taken?
– Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Child Sex Abuse Cases Bring Religion’s Practices Into Question

Shocking rise in ritual child abuse cases linked to WITCHCRAFT reported to police
MORE cases of ritual child abuse related to the belief in witchcraft are being reported to police.
By: Jane Mathews
Published: Wed, October 8, 2014

Scotland Yard has received 27 allegations in the past year, including two claims of rape, a report of a child being swung around and hit on the head “to drive out the devil”, and other youngsters being dunked in water.

A number of horrific child killings have been linked to these beliefs, including the murder of Kristy Bamu, 15, who was tortured and drowned by his sister and her boyfriend in 2010, and the death of Victoria Climbie.

The number of cases ritualistic or faith-based abuse of children reported to Scotland Yard has increased year-on-year over the past decade.

A total of 24 were passed to the force in 2013, compared with 19 in 2012 and just nine in 2011.

Since 2004, 148 such cases have been referred to the Met….
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/519929/Child-abuse-witchcraft-rise-police-reported

Rwanda: Where Are the Victims of Human Trafficking Taken?
9 October 2014

By Athan Tashobya

Most victims of human trafficking in the country are taken into forced marriage, labour and prostitution, Police said yesterday.

Speaking at a news briefing, ACP Tony Kuramba, the deputy commissioner of Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and director of Interpol-Rwanda, said the majority of the victims were taken to Uganda and Asia.

“In most cases, these victims of human trafficking are taken for forced marriage, prostitution and forced labour, we have heard cases in China, Malaysia, Thailand and Dubai, and we are following them closely,” Kuramba said during a media briefing on the forthcoming national dialogue on human trafficking at Parliament Buildings yesterday.

The dialogue, at which First Lady Jeannette Kagame is expected to officiate, is slated for tomorrow in Kigali.

Kuramba said 153 cases of human trafficking were registered since 2009, with some of them involving traffickers who use Rwanda as a transit route for victims heading to other countries….
http://allafrica.com/stories/201410090843.html

Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Child Sex Abuse Cases Bring Religion’s Practices Into Question
By Sami K. Martin , Christian Post Reporter
October 8, 2014
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have a silent epidemic of child abuse that was recently brought to public attention again after four alleged victims filed lawsuits against the organization.

There are over 7 million Jehovah’s Witnesses across the globe, according to the group’s website. However, there have been numerous accusations and cases brought against elders and leaders of the organization, alleging child abuse of both young men and women, dating back at least 30 years. Four reported victims brought a lawsuit against the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Watchtower Organization in Connecticut….

One particular case in 2012 saw Candace Conti, a victim, receive awarded $28 million in damages after alleging that member Jonathan Kendrick molested her from 1995-1996. The case was filed in Oakley, California and the $28 million award was the largest paid to a single victim….

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have plenty of information on their website about how to keep children safe from predators, but take a unique approach to dealing with cases of accused abuse. When an allegation against a member or elder is made, the organization follows a “two-witness rule,” which requires that there be two victims made. They claim that they follow Biblical principles when it comes to the rule and cite Scripture such as 1 Timothy 5:19 and Deuteronomy 19:15, which speak of having two persons come forward when making an accusation….
http://www.christianpost.com/news/jehovahs-witnesses-child-sex-abuse-cases-bring-religions-practices-into-question-127738/

High court to hear religious man’s child abuse case, Jehovah’s Witness congregation sued for alleged child abuse

High court to hear religious man’s child abuse case
Stephen Herzog, News-Leader September 28, 2014

Missouri’s Supreme Court will hear arguments this week regarding whether a Springfield man who practiced a certain type of Christianity is guilty of abusing his children.

Peter D. Hansen, 50, was convicted by a jury in 2011 of abusing one of his children by locking him in a bathroom “for days at a time” and restricting what the child could eat. Judge Dan Conklin suspended a three-year prison sentence and placed Hansen on five years probation with 100 days in the Greene County Jail.

Hansen, who is a Seventh Day Adventist, argues that his religion encourages vegetarianism and that the punishment of his children does not constitute child abuse….

Prosecutors say there is sufficient evidence to prove Hansen “inflicted cruel and inhuman punishment by locking the minors in a small, dark and cold bathroom for days at a time.” Prosecutors also say Hansen’s withholding of food was a cruel and inhuman punishment.

Hansen says the state’s evidence failed to prove either of those convictions….

Hansen said the children were bad and had bad attitudes and were being punished.

At that time, the children were taken into protective custody and the parents were arrested, according to court records.

The children were taken to the hospital where a doctor determined the children were “receiving inadequate calories for appropriate weight gain and growth.”

A nurse noted the boy’s ribs and shoulder blades were “visibly prominent,” according to court records….
http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/crime/2014/09/28/high-court-hear-religious-mans-child-abuse-case/16410841/

Jehovah’s Witness congregation sued for alleged child abuse      Two Vt. sisters claim repeated molestation in the 1990s By Stewart Ledbetter Sep 30, 2014

BURLINGTON, Vt. —Two women filed lawsuits Tuesday in state and federal courts alleging they were sexually abused as youngsters by an authority figure at their Jehovah’s Witness congregation in Bellows Falls in the mid-1990s, and claiming church elders did nothing to stop it.

The litigation, announced in Burlington, involves sisters Miranda and Annessa Lewis….

Lewis said she was 4 years old when she was first molested and fondled by…a “ministerial servant” in the congregation. Zalkin said that position is one approved by church elders.

She said her sister, Annessa, who now lives in Texas, was similarly assaulted….

“The Jehovah’s Witnesses have a policy – a policy that is grounded in a code of silence,” Zalkin said, describing a secretive organization that regards protecting its own image as paramount even to protecting its children.

When the girls’ mother says she confronted church leaders with abuse allegations, in 1995 or 1996, they were called liars.  Mauvoleon-Folsom said the family immediately left the congregation.

Miranda Lewis said the abuse has caused ongoing anxiety, depression, and a range of other psychological issues. She now lives in Chester with her mother.

The Lewis sisters are seeking compensatory and punitive damages from…, the Bellows Falls congregation and from the national parent organization called the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, based in Brooklyn, N.Y….

Zalkin said his investigators have uncovered indications that the Lewis girls were not….first victims.
http://www.wptz.com/news/vermont-new-york/burlington/jehovahs-witness-congregation-sued-for-alleged-child-abuse/28338048

Candace Conti Awarded $28M In Jehovah’s Witness Sex Abuse Case, In the Stillness: A Spiritual Response to Ritual Abuse by Cath C.

Candace Conti Awarded $28M In Jehovah’s Witness Sex Abuse Case 06/16/12 AP

OAKLAND, Calif. — A Northern California jury has awarded $28 million in damages to a woman who said the Jehovah’s Witnesses allowed an adult member of a Fremont church to molest her when she was a child in the mid-1990s.

Alameda County jurors awarded $7 million in compensatory damages on Wednesday and another $21 million in punitive damages on Thursday to Candace Conti, her attorney, Rick Simons said.

“This is the largest jury verdict for a single victim in a religious child abuse case in the country,” Simons told The Associated Press.

In her lawsuit, Conti, now 26, said from 1995-1996, when she was 9 and 10 years old and a member of the North Fremont Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, she was repeatedly molested by a fellow congregant, Jonathan Kendrick….

Conti also claimed in her suit that the religion’s national leaders formed a policy in 1989 that instructed the religion’s elders to keep child sex abuse accusations secret. Congregation elders followed that policy when Kendrick was convicted in 1994 of misdemeanor child molestation in Alameda County, according to Simons.

Kendrick was never criminally charged in the case involving Conti, but besides the 1994 conviction, he was later convicted in 2004 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child, records show….

Jim McCabe, an attorney for the congregation, said he planned to appeal the jury’s decision.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/16/calif-jury-awards-28m-in-_n_1602997.html

In the Stillness: A Spiritual Response to Ritual Abuse by Cath C. follows the life of educator Barbara B. in her recovery from ritual abuse torture. Born into a family that practiced satanism, torture, and sacrificial ritual, Barbara’s story illustrates four aspects of ritual abuse: the practice of mind control in ritual families, ritual desecration, the hardship and peril of escape, and the lasting impact of sexual exploitation.

Barbara’s recovery as an adult shows how each aspect of the evil was answered by and, ultimately, rendered ineffective through spirituality. Barbara shares what she did to achieve mental and physical wellness, spiritual strength, a productive career, and a satisfying personal life. In the Stillness: A Spiritual Response to Ritual Abuse offers hope to other survivors.  ISBN 9781477567883
http://web.me.com/katecollier/Stillness/Welcome.html