“He took my childhood away” and “I learned how to be a big person immediately” are some of the shocking statements Holly made in a recent story by The Fifth Estate.
For years and from as early as the age of three, Holly Brewer was sexually abused by her Jehovah’s Witness stepfather, Paul Berry who was an esteemed member of the organization.
By the age of five, “Holly knew how to please her stepfather sexually” and she was told by him that is she didn’t keep quiet, she wouldn’t survive Armaggedon, which is and was always taught by Jehovah’s Witnesses to be imminent, since the inception of the organization in the early 1900s.
Paul Berry took Holly into the barn or to their “secret room” beneath the house. Over the years, Holly learned how to satisfy her stepfather and was groomed to prepare the room making it “suitable for rape”.
Holly goes on to tell her interviewers that Paul was a very kinky person. “You memorize these motions of, he’s gonna hold me there, then I’m gonna do this to him, then I’m gonna be on top,” Holly said. Paul would tell Holly that she was better than her mother (at what we can only imagine).
Holly’s mother, Sara Poisson, who was physically abused by Paul Berry, eventually tried to seek help from the Jehovah’s Witness elders, where she was told to “pray more” and “be a better wife”.
The elders failed to report the case to the authorities and got away with it when they were challenged for it in court [1] by exploiting a legal loophole [2] to avoid the moral obligation of reporting child sex abuse.
This is not uncommon as was exposed in a recent investigation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses by the Australian Royal Commission [3]
Holly’s sex abuse only stopped when she built up the courage and reported the matter to the police herself at the age of sixteen in March of 1997.
Even though Jehovah’s Witnesses supported Paul Berry in court when 30 members of Paul Berry’s congregation testified as character witnesses for him [4], and with legal assistance funded by the donations from members of the organization worldwide, Paul Berry was found guilty and sentenced to a minimum of 56 years in prison.
It is estimated that well over $500,000 has been spent in donated funds of Jehovah’s Witnesses for the legal defense of Paul Berry.
[1]_christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/december3/17.23.html
[2]_silentlambs.com/news/legal-loophole-used-by-jehovahs-witnesses-to-avoid-moral-obligation
[3]_childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/case-studies/case-study-29-jehovahs-witnesses
[4]_jwanswers.com/paul-berry-congregations-testimony
[5]_youtube.com/watch?v=wiAarl0gPcA