Waymon Chandler Ivery2
Waymon Chandler Ivery, convicted of 1st Degree Sexual Assault On A Child in December 1992

Disturbing footage has come to light that apparently shows a Jehovah’s Witness with a criminal record for sexually assaulting a child, engaged in the door to door preaching work.

The footage was posted on YouTube today, and shows a man answering to the name Waymon Chandler Ivery engaged in the door-to-door ministry as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Ivery is approached by the man holding the camera and asked to confirm his identity, which he does.

The cameraman then states that Ivery has a criminal record for the sexual abuse of a child. Ivery initially attempts to deny this, but when the accusation is repeated, Ivery and his two companions (presumably also Witnesses) get into a car and leave the scene.

You can view the footage below:

Information on Ivery’s criminal record can be found here.

We are tracking down more information on this incident and will bring you updates as soon as we have them, but why does this matter? Is it not the case that once a child rapist has served his sentence, he should be given a chance to resume his place in the community without harassment? After all, why release him from prison if we are not going to give him the chance to rebuild his life?

The answer to this is obvious, and twofold.

First, as was outlined during the Austrailian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, those who have carried out the crime of child sex abuse are at extremely high risk of re-offending.

Hence, while a released inmate should be allowed to build a new life as far as is reasonable, his freedom to do so cannot be without limits or restrictions, or come at the expense of the children in the community. There must be limits and safeguards to prevent such an individual from having opportunities to re-offend.

This brings us to the second point. Ivery was not approached while shopping for food, or watching a movie, or even strolling along a busy street minding his own business. He was approached because he was engaged in a work that involves him calling at the homes of his neighbors.

I spent almost thirty years of my life engaged in the door to door ministry of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and can report that it is not uncommon for the door to be answered by a young child. I know that very often in this situation, the Witness will ask: “Hello. Can I speak to Mommy or Daddy please?”

Often the child would then run to get their parents, but I personally saw a handful of moments where the child replied: “They are not home.”

Of course, I would always take my leave when the child replied that way, and on one occasion the Witness I was with actually told the little boy in a kind but stern tone that they shouldn’t open the door to strangers if they were alone in the house – which, of course, is excellent advice.

But can you imagine how the scenario might have played out if the Witness on the doorstep was a predator struggling with a long-term desire to harm children?

And to make matters worse, Ivery is not a one-off example. In Australia alone over the past 50 years, there were over 1000 JW molesters who posed this specific risk who were not even reported to the authorities. 

At least in the case of Ivery the authorities were aware of his past, thus the local community stood a chance of knowing that a potentially dangerous sexual predator lives in their midst – even if they are likely oblivious to the likelihood of him calling at their homes and asking to be invited in to start a bible study with their families.

The solution is obvious: Watchtower should categorically instruct its congregations that those who have been convicted of sexual offenses against children cannot under any circumstances participate in activities such as door-to-door ministry that pose a high risk of putting them in contact with unsuspecting families and children – for the sake of the convicted offender, and most importantly, for the sake of the child.

Update 15/08/2016

Since we originally uploaded this article, YouTube has removed the video on the grounds that it is harassment / bullying of the subject person. Whilst I understand that YouTube has an obligation to ensure as best as possible that their service is not used to abuse or harass, I maintain that the video is in the public interest due to the reasons already given in the article.

1: The individual, Waymon Chandler Ivery, is clearly the same person as the one identified one a public website as having a criminal record for sexual assault on a child. The man himself affirms that this is his name at the start of the footage and his face clearly matches the mug shot. Thus he is already the subject of a public warning to the community – for this warning to go on YouTube increases public safety rather than detracting from it.

2: Ivery was not approached when he was out shopping, or walking the street, or waiting for a bus. He was approached specifically because he was engaged in an activity that brought him into close proximity with children in their homes, very probably without the parents of those children being aware of his past.

3: Therefore this is not a case of harassment or bullying. This is a case of public attention being drawn to a religious practice that puts a convicted child abuser into close contact with children in their homes.

covert-fade-signature

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portuguese translation

Related video…

187 thoughts on “Disturbing footage of convicted JW pedophile engaged in door to door work goes online

  • August 26, 2016 at 7:17 am
    Permalink

    The “Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is run by imperfect men” claim is a cop-out. Every company on earth is imperfect. How Watchtower states this shows how incompetent they are. There are imperfect companies that can deal with issues and there are imperfect companies that cannot. Unfortunately, Watchtower is limited and uses cop-outs to justify their actions. Don’t buy into this claim. Just ask them to name a perfect company. State a few companies to show how ridiculously juvenile this claim really is.

  • August 26, 2016 at 5:54 pm
    Permalink

    I guarantee you that no one in the Congregation knew about this convicted child rapist. Elders are instructed to keep this information secret from the Congregation. It’s even perfectly possible that he was an elder or ministerial servant since his conviction took place over 20 yrs ago. Only publicly known molesters are banned from positions in the Congregation indefinitely. Now that his crime is public, he will be removed from elder or ministerial servant.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if new victims come forward now that they feel the media has their support. Who knows how many he has raped since 1992 and we’re told to leave it in Jehovah’s hands.

    This Romano guy is a hero and JW parents should be thanking him.

  • August 26, 2016 at 6:44 pm
    Permalink

    I wasn’t going to comment on this thread because everyone has made such great observations already. What I thought about is that IF this was gods org for preaching and this man was repentant of his hideous crime he would admit his crime and actually decline from going on the doors and know that god would make up his shortfall. He would not even want to have the appearance of evil even now 20 years later. It would take true contrition to abstain from such an honour of witnessing and not cause such a scandal I think the congregation would totally understand him . Hey others may even confess themselves so they could no longer engage in such work and be deemed a bad smell in their community.In fact all the GB should do extra time to make up for the child rapists who still go door to door because I think their work might be a teensy weensy bit invalid but the GB have a hotline to god and i’m sure they have magic powers. Cheers Ruthlee

  • August 30, 2016 at 5:26 am
    Permalink

    It would be a good idea for Jehovah’s witnesses to limit the preaching of people who were convicted of child Abuse to letter writing, where they can still participate in the ministry and not offend the conscience of others. That being said people who have had something of this nature in their past and have repented of it shouldn’t be harassed by people (like the person who made this video) who have a grudge against Jehovah’s witnesses or who just dislike thwm and are persecuting them. They search out any way they can to slander those they dislike, and that’s what this really is. This man isn’t a repeat offender and it happened twenty years ago. What they are doing is persecuting Christ, when someone repents and truly repents that’s a testimonial to Christ and the holy spirit that repentance is possible for those who search for God and turn around. This guy is someone who isn’t so much interested in the victim so much as he is interested in opposing Jehovah’s witnesses and the ministry because of the resentment he harbors against them.

    • August 30, 2016 at 6:06 am
      Permalink

      Again… pedophilia is not a sin, it’s a crime. The pedophile is not a simple sinner, he’s a sick person who is probably only repressing its instincts. Enable him to go and visit children in their home isn’t wise: for pedophile and especially for children. I’m sorry, but there are actions that mark you for life: pedophilia is one of these. Both for the victim and the abuser.

  • September 30, 2016 at 3:26 pm
    Permalink

    Let us see the problem with a little backward.

    A survey in France (I am French) evaluated the number of pedophiles at 1 % of the population. Let us suppose
    that this proportion (which affects any categories of jobs) is uniform in all the countries.

    In a city of 1 million inhabitants there would be approximately 10.000 pedophiles (1 %). In that city there may counted 1000 to 5000 JW. (average 1 JW for 500 or 1000).
    Because the pedophilia hits every organizations, there would be thus 1 % of this figure is between 10 to 50 pedophiles JW in this city.

    So we have 10 to 50 facing 10.000.

    If a child meets a pedophile JW, he has unfortunately 200-1000 times more likely to meet a pedophile not JW (in his own family, school, swimming pool, football ….) .

    ( Searching Google for the pedophiles’ percentage in the population, I came across the case Of former 1st ministers in Australia, actors, artists… This evil is terrible )

Comments are closed.