Charges put focus on Jehovah’s Witnesses’ handling of abuse
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YORK HAVEN, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania grand jury in recent months accused nine men with connections to the Jehovah’s Witnesses of child sexual abuse in what some consider the nation’s most comprehensive investigation yet into abuse within the faith.
The sets of charges filed in October and February have fueled speculation the jury may make public more about what it has uncovered from a four-year investigation.
A similar grand jury investigation into child sexual abuse by Catholic priests culminated in a lengthy 2018 report that concluded hundreds of priests had abused children in Pennsylvania over seven decades and church officials had covered it up, and more recently a similar report was issued in Maryland.
But documents made public so far include nothing about what critics have long maintained has been a systemic cover-up and mishandling of child molestation within the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry, at a news conference in February announcing charges, said some of the defendants “even used their faith communities to prey upon the victims.”
Content retrieved from: https://apnews.com/article/jehovahs-witnesses-child-abuse-pennsylvania-investigation-01660ed00de1f2a02f87c0597c9ae0af.
