The Jehovah's Witnesses Church in Australia failed to report to police more than 1,000 cases of child sexual abuse going back more than 60 years, it has been claimed.

Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was launched in 2013 amid allegations of serial child abuse inside the Catholic Church in Australia.

But it has a broad mandate to examine other religious and secular organisations.

At the opening hearing into the Jehovah's Witnesses today, Angus Stewart, senior council assisting the commission, described the church as an 'insular sect with rules designed to stem the reporting of sexual abuse'.

"Evidence will be put before the Royal Commission that of the 1,006 alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse identified by the Jehovah's Witness Church since 1950, not one was reported by the church to secular authorities," he said.

"This suggests that it is the practice of the Jehovah’s Witness church to retain information regarding child sexual abuse offences but not to report allegations of child sexual abuse to the police or other relevant authorities.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/jehovahs-witnesses-church-failed-report-6145183