Children who were raped and abused by Jehovah’s Witnesses were told by church elders not to report it because it would shame the religion, it is claimed.

Victims from across Britain have told the BBC how they were routinely abused — but it was hushed up by the secretive organization.

One victim, Louise Palmer, said she was told that reporting her rapist brother to police would “bring reproach on Jehovah.”

The 41-year-old, formerly of Halesowen — a small town 115 miles north-west of London — was born into the organization along with her brother Richard Davenport, who started raping her when she was four. He is now in jail.

She said of the moment she went to elders: “I asked, ‘what should I do? Do you report it to the police, do I report it to the police?'”

“And their words were that they strongly advised me not to go to the police because it would bring reproach on Jehovah.”

Palmer added: “I believe children aren’t safe. No child is ever going to feel like they can come forward.”

Another woman said she was raped as a child by a friend of her brother.

But her parents and elders in the congregation advised her not to report it.

The BBC said it also spoke to male and female victims in Worcestershire, Birmingham, Cheltenham, Leicester and Glasgow who told gave similar accounts.

They claim the religion’s organizing body “self-polices” sins but insists on two witnesses before a congregation will act on any alleged transgression.

But that is impossible in most cases of sexual abuse.

Victims also told the BBC how church elders teach members to avoid interactions with outside authorities and not to take another member to court.

Breaking this rule could lead to expulsion from the religion, they say.

Child abuse lawyer Kathleen Hallisey believes there could be thousands of victims across the country who have not come forward because of the “two witness” rule.

The organization described child abuse as a “heinous crime and sin” and said it did not “shield abusers from the authorities of the consequences of their actions.”

It said: “Any suggestion that Jehovah’s Witnesses covered up child abuse was absolutely false.”

It said victims and their parents had “the absolute right to report the matter to the governmental authorities” and that was “not contingent on the number of witnesses to the offense.”

The statement added “loving and protective parents” were the “best deterrent to child abuse” and elders provided “abuse victims and their families with spiritual comfort from the Bible.”

An ongoing inquiry into safeguarding issues in the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Britain – the UK’s main Jehovah’s Witnesses organization – was begun by the Charity Commission watchdog in 2013.