• A woman, now 33, accuses her father of incest within the community of Jehovah's Witnesses in Lorient.

  • She claims to have been the victim of rape and sexual assault at the hands of her father between 1995 and 2008.

  • After the filing of his complaint, a preliminary investigation was opened by the prosecutor of Lorient.

The charges are very heavy and plunge Jehovah's Witnesses into turmoil. A preliminary investigation was opened in Lorient after the complaint of a member who accuses her father of having raped her when she was a child and her community of having "covered up" these acts. According to a source close to the investigation, the parents of the complainant, 33, were taken into custody on May 3 for 24 hours, then released.

The 30-something, now married and mother of three, says she was the victim of rape and sexual assault by her father between 1995 and 2008, when she was aged 8 to 21.

She indicates that her father would have forced her to have anal penetrations "as soon as he could".

Her mother allegedly "repeatedly" asked her to sleep with him, calling her "stuck" when she complained of her father's sexual abuse, according to the complaint.

The complainant also refers to the mistreatment suffered by the children looked after by her mother, as a maternal assistant.

"If my parents fall, the community of Lorient falls"

In August 2013, after the revelation of the facts in the entourage of the complainant, the Jehovah's Witnesses of Lorient had organized a "judicial committee", according to the thirty-something. “One of the elders said we could file a complaint, but the others said it was going to smear Jehovah's name,” she said. An investigation was opened in June 2019 in Lorient and her mother had her maternal assistant approval withdrawn, according to the young woman.

But “my parents are fully supported by the community,” she says.

If my parents fall, the community of Lorient falls because there are too many people who know about it ”.

"In matters of incest, there is already a law of silence but, there, it is even stronger", insists his lawyer Karine Shebabo, who wishes to launch a "call for witnesses" to find people that his client would have forgotten .

The French subsidiary of Jehovah's Witnesses expresses its "compassion"

“This situation hurts us greatly, because the victim, if the facts are proven, risks suffering for a long time from the attacks suffered. Our first thought is therefore one of compassion, ”reacted Béthel, the French subsidiary of Jehovah's Witnesses. According to this source, the line of conduct "in terms of reporting child sexual abuse" is for "ministers of religion" to invite "the adult victim to reveal the facts to the authorities" or ask the parents to do so if she is a minor.

“This recommendation has been followed for many, many years,” says Bethel.

As for the "judicial committee" referred to by the complainant, it "is constituted solely to decide whether the accused person can remain a member of the assembly or not" and its action "does not interfere in any way with the legal proceedings before the authorities", he assures.

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  • Lorient

  • Sexual assault

  • Incest

  • Rape

  • Investigation

  • Society

  • Sect