The chickens are coming home to roost.
Jehovah's Witnesses face sex abuse lawsuits via Child Victims Act
ExtractStarting Wednesday, New York State law will allow those who say they were abused as children one year to file civil lawsuits against their alleged abusers — and the institutions that allegedly failed to take action — as part of the Child Victims Act, which passed in January.
At a news conference on Monday, John Michael Ewing, 47, and Heather Steele, 48, said they plan to file suits against the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Wednesday for the sexual abuse they suffered as children growing up in the faith.
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Some receive justice...
GROUNDBREAKING LAWSUITS CLAIM JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES COVERED UP YEARS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSEZalkin has represented 24 former or current Witnesses in abuse lawsuits, plus about 10 more than settled out of court. In most, accusation were brought to congregation elders, who either dismissed them or disciplined the perpetrator privately.
"They don't tell anyone else why the person is being disciplined," says Zalkin. "And if someone confesses and demonstrates—in their mind—that they're repentant, they'll get a 'private reproof,' which is like a slap on the wrist."
Over the past two decades there have been dozens of cases alleging the church hid or mismanaged allegations of child sexual abuse. In September 2018, a Montana woman who claimed her elders were ordered not to report her abuse won a $35 million suit. The Watchtower is currently petitioning the Supreme Court to review another case in California, claiming a database it maintains of alleged molesters is protected by clergy-penitent confessional privilege.
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Opportunities for child abuses to hide decreasing in Australia.
Child Sex Abuse: Statute of LimitationsPersonal injury claims in most states in Australia must generally be commenced within three years from the date the injury was sustained.
Until recently, these general statutory time limits applied to victims of childhood sexual abuse in every state. This is despite the fact that it takes survivors of childhood sexual abuse an average of 20 years to be able to process what has happened to them and speak up about the abuse that occurred.
These statutory time limits have meant that survivors have had to bring about action within the set time or be deemed ‘out of time’, forced to abandon civil action or apply to the court for an extension of the allowable time period.
The law in most states allows for time extensions if certain conditions are met. These conditions are notoriously difficult to satisfy and even if met, the court must still exercise its discretion to extend time.
This has resulted in a very unfair situation where survivors of sexual abuse have been denied the opportunity to seek justice for the crimes committed against them.
Thankfully, we have seen steps in the right direction, with governments across Australia beginning to implement the Royal Commission’s recommendations to abolish time limitations. Below, we outline the reforms that have taken place to-date:
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If Jehovah of Watchtower actually exists, then he may be getting hacked off with his earth-bound representative.
