Victims of a convicted paedophile were made to attend a Jehovah’s Witness meeting where they were interrogated by the man who molested them, a Charity Commission investigation has found.

Back in 2014, the M.E.N revealed how three women who complained Jehovah’s Witness elder Jonathan Rose, 43, had molested them as children were forced to relive their experiences in detail as eight other senior congregation members looked on.

The women had wanted Rose barred from the Manchester church, and were told that they would have to take part in the bizarre process if Rose was to be ‘disfellowshipped’.

Following our report, national regulator the Charity Commission launched an inquiry into the church at the centre of the controversy, which is a registered charity.

The investigation concluded that trustees had ‘badly let down’ the women, and makes findings of misconduct and mismanagement against them.

Back in 2013, Rose was jailed for nine months for abuse against two little girls. He targeted them at the Manchester Jehovah’s Witness congregation he belonged to. A third woman had accused Rose of molesting her 20 years earlier, but he was acquitted in a trial back then.

Despite this history, following Rose’s release from jail, he was allowed to return to twice-weekly services at the congregation.

The Charity Commission has now concluded that the women were ‘effectively required’ to attend a hearing where they had to repeat the allegations in the presence of the abuser, and that he had been allowed to question them. Rose has since been disfellowshipped from that congregation, but is understood to have moved on to another in the region.

At the time of the interrogations, a whistleblower told the M.E.N: “Before each meeting the women were read a scripture on false witnesses and told to consider it carefully. They had to go through the abuse in detail and were asked if they encouraged it. One of the victims was asked if she had enjoyed it.

“At the third meeting Rose was present. He questioned the women in detail about the abuse with no one stepping in to stop bullying.”

The Charity Commission has found that the trustees of the congregation ‘did not deal adequately’ with allegations against Rose - and in the earliest case has dismissed the accusation as ‘a matter between teenagers’. The same woman was branded a ‘troublemaker’ who was ‘economical with the truth’.

Neither did trustees fully enforce restrictions on Rose, who was seen knocking on doors on behalf of the Jehovah’s Witnesses following his conviction. On top of this, they failed to ‘adequately consider potential conflicts of loyalty’ to Rose, or keep an ‘adequate written record of the decision-making process used to manage the potential risks posed by the individual to the beneficiaries of the charity’, the Commission found.

Trustees argued that they were not responsible for the procedure and that victims had taken part voluntarily. The Commission accepted that the trustees didn’t carry out the process themselves, but ‘carry ultimate responsibility’ for it and the effect it had on the victims.

Since the investigation was launched however, the charity has improved it’s safeguarding policy, the Commission has found.

Harvey Grenville, Head of Investigations and Enforcement at the Charity Commission, said: “As our report makes clear, the victims of abuse were badly let down by the charity. The trustees should have made the victims’ welfare their first priority. Instead, their actions and omissions, both in response to allegations of abuse, and in their attitude towards our investigation, fell short of what the public would expect of those running a charity in a modern society. Our report rightly holds the trustees of the Manchester New Moston congregation to account. I hope that it therefore provides some comfort and reassurance to those affected by the circumstances we have investigated.

“Our investigation has helped ensure that the charity has improved its procedures around the handling of child safeguarding concerns and its internal disciplinary process. Most importantly, the charity’s policy and procedures now make clear that victims of child sexual abuse are not required to make their allegations in the presence of the alleged abuser. They also state that protective restrictions must be put in place to protect the charity’s members from people found guilty of child sexual abuse by the criminal courts. We welcome these changes.”

A whistleblower told the M.E.N that for 20 years, sexual abuse victims had been treated with ‘contempt’ by people who were supposed to be protecting them.

They said: “The victims were called names, shunned and accused of making it all up, but Rose has been treated like the prodigal son by Jehovah’s Witnesses. It’s just appalling. I welcome this report, but it does not go far enough - the trustees of the congregation concerned should be struck off from acting as a charity.”

A statement from the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the main legal body used worldwide by Jehovah’s Witnesses, said: “Jehovah’s Witnesses abhor child abuse in all of its forms and do not shield wrongdoers from the authorities or from the consequences of their actions. All allegations of abuse are thoroughly investigated and appropriate restrictions are imposed on any person who is guilty of child sexual abuse.

“For years Jehovah’s Witnesses have had a robust child safeguarding policy. The trustees followed the policy by imposing restrictions on the perpetrator and by ensuring that he had no unsupervised contact with children during congregation meetings.

“The trustees will continue to concentrate on doing all that they can to safeguard children and to care for the spiritual needs of the congregation.”

The M.E.N approached one of the trustees at the Manchester New Moston congregation, who declined to comment.