Michael Porter, 38, used his trusted position as a ministerial servant to indulge his habits as a pedophile. One of his victims was an 18-month-old baby.

Jehovah’s Witness parents trusted him to look after their children, and Porter regularly babysat for youngsters, took them away on holidays and invited them for sleepovers at his home.

Michael Porter pleaded guilty to 24 counts of indecent assault and gross indecency on children at Bristol Crown Court.

He walked free from court on August 23 (2007) despite admitting his sexual abuse of young children. Judge Thomas Crowther handed him a three-year community rehabilitation order after hearing he had undergone therapy.

Judge Thomas Crowther said:

“This is a case which in my experience is exceptional, in a sense historic and revealed by you in unusual circumstances which I am sure are linked with the faith by which you now run your life. ..

I’m satisfied, having the advantage of a number of reports as to your early background, that the reasons for your behaving as you did are complex and personal and reveal that you were subject to pressures which make it understandable that you should have acted as you did in this case. ..

What’s important, in terms of sentence, to realize is that you had changed your life before there was any question of these matters being revealed and I’m as satisfied as I can be, whereas in some circumstances punishment by way of imprisonment is inevitable, this is not one of those, and the proper sentence is a community rehabilitation order.”

However, Porter’s sister Tina Hughes spoke out against the ruling and warned that her brother would commit further offences now he was back in society:

“I think the judge was absolutely pathetic. He just took my brother’s side completely and believed that all he needed was a bit more therapy and now realized he had done wrong. …

He blamed his childhood for the attacks, which was a lie, but the judge ate it all up. …
I just broke down in tears when the judge said he wasn’t going to jail. The whole courtroom went quiet. No-one could believe it. …
I can’t believe the judge thinks he is safe to be allowed out on the streets. He won’t stop. …

He has gone back to London and left us to pick up the pieces. He hasn’t lost anything. He hasn’t even lost his wife. He hasn’t been affected in any way. He can go away and pretend nothing has happened because he doesn’t have to live here.”

A source said:

“One of the problems was that most of the victims were not prepared to make statements or give any kind of evidence. The offenses took place a long time ago and most of them seemed keen to put it all behind them.”

Mr Porter’s current Jehovah’s Witness congregation has stood by him despite confessing to his crimes, according to his sister. He is thought to be an elder at the Mill Hill Kingdom Hall, in Barnet, north London. Mill Hill is one of the most significant congregations in United Kingdom, as it is the official home congregation for the Branch Office of the IBSA (International Bible Students Association). Porter is listed as a “Trustee” for the Mill Hill Congregation with the UK Charities Commission.

Jehovah’s Witness elders from Porter’s Mill Hill Congregation assured media that Porter would be “supervised” as he attended meetings and door to door ministry to offer bibles studies with families.

Update: On 19 September 2007 the BBC reported that Porter’s case is to be reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The Court of Appeal will now review the case to decide whether to increase Porter’s sentence.

A statement from the Attorney General’s office said:

“After a careful review, the Attorney General Baroness Scotland has decided to refer the sentence. She considers the sentence to be unduly lenient.

It will now be for the Court of Appeal to decide at a future hearing whether or not to increase the sentence.”

Settlements were reached in late February and early March, according to court records obtained by Bill Bowen of SilentLambs.org. Now with video of press conference! Fourteen of the cases were filed in California; the others were in Oregon and Texas.
“For once, we have the church stepping up to the plate and having to settle with these victims,” said Bill Bowen, founder of SilentLambs.org. “To me, it’s a vindication for the abuse survivors.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses Silentlambs Press Conference on Channel 4
(article continues below)

Mario Moreno, the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ associate general counsel, confirmed that nine lawsuits involving a total of 16 plaintiffs had been settled. When asked the total amount of the settlements, he said, “I’m not able to comment on any of the specifics,” citing “a confidentiality agreement.”

Bowen called that agreement a “bittersweet” outcome. “Even though they’re vindicated and they’re going to be compensated … they can’t tell anybody about it,” he said. Even so, Bowen considered this a significant legal victory for the plaintiffs. “It’s the largest group of people that they have settled with – as far as child abuse is concerned – at one time,” he said. Moreno would only say that “it certainly is unusual for us to have a number of cases.”

In a brief statement, the religious body said: “We are pleased to see this matter resolved.” The statement “regarding January-February 2007 settlement of child abuse cases” cites the New Testament book of Romans about hating “what is wicked” and says child abuse falls in that category.

“As an organization, we will continually strive to educate families and congregations with sound Scriptural teachings that they can use to protect their children from child molesters,” the statement said. “And we will continue to do our utmost to protect children from this horrible crime and sin.”

SilentLambs.org has criticized the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ policy on abuse. If the accused denies the charge, two credible witnesses are required to establish guilt due to literal application of such Bible verses as Deuteronomy 19:15 (”only on the evidence of two witnesses, or of three witnesses, shall a charge be sustained”). If two witnesses are lacking, the accused is deemed innocent, charges remain confidential and parents who warn others are subject to disfellowshipping for slander.

Since establishing SilentLambs.org in 2001, Bowen says about 7,000 people who claim they were abused have contacted his support group.

Sources:

SilentLambs.org
Beliefnet
Associated Press

Revulsed, the boy was nevertheless forced to be around this molester in the years ahead in agonizing cruel ways.

When the matter came up before the Service Dept. of the Watchtower in Brooklyn, and the elders in the local congregation, no reply was given, no apologies, no offer for counseling an abuse victim, just the warning that you “could be disfellowshipped for gossip.”

See his compelling testimony in the following 20 minute video.That in spite of the fact that the molester not only acknowledged his dirty deed to the young man later on, but that the other elders and Brooklyn had “taken care of the matter.” The molester moved on to be a Special Pioneer and elder in the boy’s congregation. He remains an elder in Jehovah’s Spiritual Paradise to this day. No offers for help were ever given to the young man, who will remain anonymous as he is still technically a Jehovah’s Witness.

The following video is a shocking reminder that in spite of the Watchtower’s Public Relations Dept. and their statements on their website, the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society is still VERY MUCH INTERESTED in keeping molesters a secret in the congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses, even using such ones in responsible positions! Will such a one be coming by your door soon? In his letter to Brooklyn dated March 2005 the victim, who chooses to remain anonymous because he is still a Witness, writes the Governing Body these questions in the light of their refusal to address his previous letters to Service Dept. Rep. Lon Schilling:

1. Why was I never contacted by the Service Dept. or a Judicial committee as a sexual assault victim?

2. Why was I not offered psychological and emotional help as a victim of sexual assault?

3. Why did you not keep him away from me?

4. Why was this action committed in Jehovah’s Visible Organization?

5. Why did the Governing Body torment me by having such an unhealthy and inhumane child abuse policy?

6. You paid him to be in my face while I was still a minor; you paid him as a special pioneer and appointed him to be my elder in Mountain City, TN. Why? Were you not psychologically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually beating me up in the JW Spiritual Paradise by appointing him as the Presiding Overseer of my congregation?

See the compelling testimony in the following 20 minute video. The video is seperated into 3 parts:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Oscar Omar Osorto Sr., 47, of Liberty was convicted and sentenced Wednesday for sexual assault charges including statutory rape and attempted rape of a child.

Osorto abused the girls, now 16 and 17, from 2000 to 2004, telling their mother he would take them out to eat, but then raping them in the Siler City congregation’s Kingdom Hall, his car and possibly other places, prosecutors said. He was arrested in July 2004 and was released on $50,000 bail a few days later.

A third sister also accused Osorto of abuse, but no charges were filed.

Osorto was one of several elders in the church’s Spanish-language congregation until last year when he was disfellowshipped after the rape allegations surfaced, according to court records.

The victims’ mother said she was a single parent of four children who turned to Osorto for help and advice.

“Just the thought that he was viewed as a good person, a family friend, killed me inside, because he was not what people thought he was,” one of the girls wrote in a statement read by prosecutor Kayley Taber before sentencing.

Based on Associated Press and The News & Observer articles

Prosecutor Roger Griffiths said the boy’s parents had invited Gibbs back to their home because they knew him through his church activities.

He said, “Gibbs said he had become known to the family because they regularly attended the church.

“But on the night he met them by chance in a pub – they were all their with friends who were Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“He then returned to their home to stay the night.”

Cardiff Crown Court heard Gibbs woke the boy up and the youngster ran to his mother.

Mr Griffiths said, “He said he was frightened of Anthony because he had been feeling him. He told his mother Gibbs had been touching him.”

Gibbs, of Croeserw, near Maesteg, admitted what he had done to police and told them he was feeling lonely.

Mr Griffiths said, “He told officers there seemed to be some temptation. Gibbs told the police, ‘It disgusts me and it has disgusted the congregation’.

“He said, ‘Maybe it’s because lately I haven’t found a girlfriend and was looking for a substitute’.”

“Gibbs said he had been getting on with a girl earlier in the evening and seemed to suggest he was pretending the boy was that girl when he touched him.”

Peter Davies, defending, said, “This was an isolated incident. He has a very lonely background and has now lost everything. He has crucified himself with self-recrimination for what he has done.”

Judge David Aubrey QC sentenced Gibbs to a three-year community rehabilitation order and ordered him to register as a sex offender for five years.

QUEENSLAND NEWS
11mar04

A devout Jehovah’s Witness and family man raped two children and assaulted five others in a lagoon at a Gold Coast theme park, a court was told yesterday.

The man, a 33-year-old father-of-two from Beenleigh, allegedly inserted his finger in the anus of a nine-year-old boy and the vagina of the boy’s seven-year-old sister at Dreamworld.

Police allege the attack happened on December 14 last year in the Blue Lagoon water park pool during a game of “shark”, in which children are grabbed from behind and pulled underwater. The man’s two children, aged 10 and 8, were playing in the pool at the time of the alleged assaults.

The man faced Southport Magistrate’s Court yesterday for the first time charged with two counts of rape, two of indecent assault on a child under 16, five of common assault and one count of possessing a drug utensil.

Details of the alleged attack emerged during a bail application when the man’s lawyer, Michael Gatenby, said his client denied the charges.

Mr Gatenby told the court his client had been married for 12 years and was heavily involved in the church.

The defendant’s wife and mother were in the court to support him and his sister was willing to put up a $10,000 cash surety, Mr Gatenby said.

The court heard the man visited Dreamworld up to 20 times last year.

Magistrate Michael O’Driscoll ruled that the man was an unacceptable risk of re-offending and remanded him in custody until June 2 for a committal hearing mention.

Outside court, Mr Gatenby said he intended to file a Supreme Court bail application today.

Meanwhile, a Victorian man is expected to face Southport Magistrate’s Court today charged with child rape and other sex offences that allegedly took place in south-east Queensland in the mid-1980s.

The retired builder, 60, allegedly molested his stepchildren and their friends

Source: The Courier-Mail (Australia)

Thursday, July 31, 2003

Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer

Eight former members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses have filed lawsuits in three Northern California counties alleging that they were sexually molested as children and that their church covered up the crimes.

The lawsuits against the church and its congregations in Yolo, Napa and Tehama counties seek unspecified damages against two individuals and several organizations affiliated with the religious group.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses, famous for promoting its “Watchtower” religious tracts on city streets and door-to-door, is a Christian millenarian sect that arose in the wake of the “Great Disappointment” of the 1840s, when several predictions about the end of the world failed to come to pass.

Members hold different theological views than most Christian churches preach, most notably their denial of the Trinity and their belief that only 144,000 true believers will achieve full sainthood when the world does end.

The allegations against the Jehovah’s Witnesses are similar to those leveled against the Roman Catholic Church in numerous lawsuits filed in California and across the country in recent years.

The legal assault — coordinated and filed last week by the Sacramento law firm of Nolen Saul Brelsford — is the latest action under a new state law that temporarily abolishes the statute of limitations on lawsuits dealing with child abuse cases, making it easier to collect money from churches, schools and other organizations with a history of sexual abuse.

Because they deal with civil law, the lawsuits against Jehovah’s Witnesses are not bound by last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a California law used to prosecute priests and other alleged child molesters accused of decades-old abuse.

3 YOLO PLAINTIFFS
In Yolo County, the lawsuit was brought by Daniel West, 26; Shane Pence, 18; and Amber Pence, 23.

All three plaintiffs say they were molested by Timothy Silva, who led “adolescent book studies” at the Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation in Woodland.

“This sexual predator used his appointed position of leadership and authority over children to gain access to and abuse those children,” the lawsuit states.

Paul Polidoro, the associate general counsel for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, said the staff at the church headquarters in New York had not yet seen the lawsuit and had no comment on the specific allegations.

“The majority of these lawsuits are parishioner-on-parishioner incidents,” Polidoro said.

Silva, who, according to plaintiffs’ attorney William Brelsford, was convicted in 1995 of lewd and lascivious behavior with a minor, could not be reached for comment.

CHILD ABUSE TAKEN SERIOUSLY
“Our local congregations and national organization take child abuse quite seriously,” Polidoro said. “Child abuse allegations are reported to (the) authorities if they occur.”

Not so, the lawsuit charges.

It alleges that church leaders were told that West had been molested from 1991, when he was 13 years old, through 1993.

“Watchtower defendants did not notify authorities nor take any steps to hold (Silva) accountable,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit goes on to charge that the church exacerbated the trauma to West by accusing him “of participating in homosexual activity.”

The complaint also alleges that one of the other plaintiffs, Shane Pence, was 7 years old when Silva “committed continued and repeated sexual battery” on the boy for five years, until 1997.

MOTHER MADE THE REPORT
“His mother reported the abuse to the Watchtower defendants,” the suit states, and were told not to contact the police themselves, that the church would take care of the problem.

“Watchtower defendants did not report the abuse to authorities and took no steps to address it,” the lawsuit charges.

The only other named, living perpetrator in the four lawsuits filed last week is convicted child molester James Henderson of Red Bluff, who, Brelsford said, is alleged to have molested then-15-year-old plaintiff “Tim W.” in 1994.

Daniel Hall, who left the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1992 and now runs a “counter-cult” ministry in Sacramento, said the tightly controlled nature of the sect made it even harder for children and adults to speak out against sexual abuse.

“These children have been living in fear and are just coming out,” said Hall.

Hall is working with another former Jehovah’s Witness, William Bowen, who has an extensive Web site (www.silentlambs.org) devoted to the abuse problem in the sect.

‘INSIDE SOURCES’
Bowen’s Web site, which includes a SilentLambs store selling coffee mugs and T-shirts with the group’s logo, reports that “inside sources” at the headquarters of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York have revealed secret files with the names of 23,720 accused child molesters.

Hall and Bowen will be among the speakers Aug. 8-10 at a weekend conference about cults and sects being held at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Marin County.

Hall described the conference as a “gathering of people who have come out of these groups and become Christians.”

Polidoro said he was insulted by Hall’s ministry and Bowen’s allegations.

“We are a well-established religion that has been in this country for a century,” he said. “It’s somewhat offensive when someone uses the word ‘cult’ to describe your religion.”

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Philip Brumley, general counsel for the national group, said Thursday that the organization will look into the allegations.

“Our hearts go out to anyone who suffered abuse as a child, in any fashion,” he said. “We’re unable at this point to state any particulars concerning this case because we were only apprised of it two days ago.”

The negligence suit filed Tuesday in 251st District Court in Potter County by a woman identified only as Amy B. names as defendants Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Larry Kelley and several other organizations, including the Dumas Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Amarillo-Southwest Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

According to the suit, the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization appointed Kelley as elder of the Dumas congregation sometime before 1988, and that he used his position to sexually abuse children. The organization’s officials learned of the alleged abuse while Kelley was an elder but did not report it to authorities or warn other members, the suit states.

In 1988, Kelley was transferred to the Amarillo-Southwest Congregation where he used his leadership post to abuse other children, including the 23-year-old plaintiff, who was 8 years old at the time of the alleged abuse, according to the lawsuit.

The suit claims Kelley was convicted of indecency with a child/sexual contact in 1992.

Additionally, the suit claims the organizations knew or should have known for five years that Kelley was sexually abusing young girls within the congregation and that they failed to act.

The suit seeks unspecified damages for medical expenses, counseling and psychological treatment, and other damages.

Kelley could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

(CBS)Like any mom, Heidi Meyer fixes boo-boos, serves up breakfast and even reviews some math homework.

But every day is a fight for this mom to overcome her past.

“Basically any way that he could put his hands on me, he did,” she told CBS News Correspondent Jane Clayson.

From the time she was 10, until she turned 13, Heidi, a Jehovah’s Witness, says she was molested by a member of her congregation. Finally, she turned to the leaders of her faith.

And what did they say?

“They asked me, do you think this could be a misunderstanding? And I said, no. No, I’m very sure of how his hands were on my body and there’s no way to misunderstand that,” Meyer said.

But the elders dismissed her plea for help and sent her away with a warning: “You need to keep quiet about this. You don’t want to drag his name through the mud. You don’t want to drag the name of Jehovah’s organization through the mud.”

Bill Bowen, an elder for more than 20 years explained, “Anything that an elder says is viewed as the direct word of God.”

Bowen, a former Jehovah’s Witness went on, “You could even be excommunicated for questioning what an elder tells you to do. There’s no negotiation here. You must obey what the elders direct.”

But what silences most victims is that Jehovah’s Witnesses require either a confession or two eyewitnesses to any accusation — making sexual abuse almost impossible to prove.

For Leanna Morley, in Oregon, the abuse started when she was five.

“It’s time that the people knew about the secrets that happen in that religion,” she said. “It was a living hell.”

Sue was seven years old and living in Washington. Her molester later made a chilling confession. He said there were 24 to 42 little girls that he had molested — he couldn’t remember how many exactly.

Bill Bowen says by the end of the year he expects at least 100 lawsuits to be filed against the faith.

The problem is huge, he said. “It’s of global proportions. You’re talking about tens of thousands of children who’ve been molested in the last ten years. Tens of thousands, easily.”

The Jehovah’s Witnesses Headquarters disputes these numbers but says they’re aware of the problem — and cites a letter it published last May. It says “we have long instructed elders to report allegations of child abuse to the authorities where required by law to do so, even where there is only one witness.”

There is another letter. It denies Heidi Meyer’s charges, saying “… no child abuse involved.”

For Heidi, it’s another betrayal by a faith she trusted and turned to for help.

“These are your spiritual leaders, these are men appointed by God in the eyes of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and who was I? You know, I was just some kid.”

As a mom she’s still fighting to overcome her past — even choosing to home school her son because she’s afraid to leave him with others.

A 14-year-old Dorchester girl and her parents are suing the Jehovah’s Witnesses, arguing that the religious group covered up the girl’s sexual abuse by a Bible study leader and discouraged her parents from reporting the abuse to police or prosecutors.

The girl, allegedly molested in her house by the son of a church elder from the Columbus Park Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Dorchester, was so traumatized by the abuse that she has spent most of the past three years involuntarily committed to local psychiatric hospitals, the lawsuit alleges. Her mother says that while church leaders coddled her daughter’s abuser, they socially ostracized her for notifying law enforcement authorities and pressing criminal charges, according to court papers.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Suffolk Superior Court, highlights a sexual abuse scandal that has begun to envelop a religious group other than the Catholic Church: Jehovah’s Witnesses, who claim 1 million followers in the United States and 6 million worldwide.

Those who have filed lawsuits against the church – calling themselves ‘’silent lambs,” because they say the church has discouraged them from getting help – argue that doctrine requiring alleged sexual abuse victims to produce witnesses to their molestation breeds an environment that favors abusers and allows abuse to thrive. They also charge that the church’s policy of investigating complaints on its own, and discouraging reports to authorities, is illegal.

Officials at the Columbus Park Congregation could not be reached yesterday. At the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc., also a defendant in the Suffolk lawsuit, an employee in the media center yesterday referred inquiries to the church’s Web site, where church officials speak in general terms about their policy on child abuse.

The church’s third priority, after protecting victims and seeking help for perpetrators, is seeing that secular authorities are informed about the accusation, says Philip Brumley, general counsel for Jehovah’s Witnesses, in a Web site video. A spokesman at the New York office did not return phone calls yesterday afternoon.

The group was also named in a 2001 lawsuit in New Hampshire Superior Court involving two half-sisters who accused a man – the father of one, the stepfather of the other – of sexually abusing them as children in the 1980s. The man, now serving a 56-year sentence for sexual abuse, was a member of the Wilton (N.H.) Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Although the women’s mother repeatedly voiced suspicion of sexual abuse to church elders, they told her to keep it within the church, the lawsuit charges. The women charge that New Hampshire state law required the church leaders to report the abuse to authorities.

The Suffolk lawsuit outlines similar charges that church elders in Dorchester tried to keep quiet allegations of sexual abuse. The suit alleges that William Broadard, an elder in the Columbus Park Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, appointed his son as a ”pioneer” in the church, even though he knew his son was a threat to children.

The suit alleges that Ronald Broadard had a history of sexually and physically abusing children.

Ronald Broadard went to the girl’s home in Dorchester, specifically asking to ”talk about God with the kids,” according to the lawsuit. When the girl’s parents agreed, he began meeting with the girl in their home in 1998, when she was about 10. But while he was visiting her from 1998 to 2000, they charge, he was molesting her. The girl’s parents alerted authorities in the fall of 2000. The Globe’s policy is not to name alleged victims of sexual abuse unless they agree to be identified.

Even though Massachusetts did not then require clergy to report suspected child abuse – a law was passed last year after the Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal erupted – the girl’s family argues that the church leaders were ”guidance or family counselors,” who were required to report potential child abuse.

The girl’s parents did not learn about the abuse until their daughter’s therapist told them the girl had been trying to kill herself. The girl, who had always done well in school, started having trouble. ”She became suicidal and started acting out and no longer was the angelic, well-behaved child that she used to be,” said Stephen M. Born, the family’s lawyer.

In October 2000, Broadard was arrested and charged with two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child and one count of assault and battery. But the charges were dismissed the following year. The lawsuit alleges the charges were dropped because Broadard was found incompetent to stand trial. Suffolk County prosecutors could not ascertain yesterday afternoon why the charges were dropped.

Meanwhile, according to the lawsuit, the local Jehovah’s Witnesses elders, including Broadard’s father, decided only to ”reprove” him. He kept his title and responsibilities within the church, the lawsuit charges.

And when the girl’s mother told church leaders about the abuse, they told her she should not talk about it. The church elders told her they would handle the matter and urged her to ”pray more about the situation,” the lawsuit charges.

The girl was committed to psychiatric institutions after she was diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from the abuse, Born said. ”This is almost like a fresh wound,” he said. ”The effect of it, the trauma, has been dramatic.”

Kathleen Burge can be reached at kburge@globe.com.

This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 1/1/2003.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.