Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Jehovah's Witnesses Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom · 2015

United Kingdom: former Jehovah's Witness elder jailed for indecently assaulting a schoolgirl in his congregation

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

elder, Jehovah's Witness congregation

Organization

Jehovah's Witness congregation, Stoke-on-Trent

Spiritual nexus

Winkle was an elder in his Jehovah's Witness congregation when he indecently assaulted a schoolgirl connected to the church on three occasions in the late 1970s, using the trust his eldership commanded within the congregation to avoid scrutiny for decades.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2015-11-22 · guilty plea/conviction and sentence

    Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court, England. Admitted two charges of indecent assault and was convicted at trial of a third; sentenced to 4 years' imprisonment for indecently assaulting a schoolgirl on three occasions nearly 40 years earlier. Placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • eldership standing used to access a schoolgirl connected to the congregation over multiple occasions

Primary record

Sources

aggregated court reporting criminal disposition and nexus Cult Education Institute (reprint of local press), 'Ex-Jehovah's Witness elder jailed for sex assaults on schoolgirl.'

Court report confirming Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court sentencing, the eldership role, and indefinite sex-offenders-register placement.

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