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The Jehovah’s Witnesses movement has denied new claims it covered up sexual abuse – after a rape victim said she was advised not to go to the police .

Louise Palmer previously told the Birmingham Mail of her ordeal at the hands of her older brother Richard Davenport, who was later jailed.

She said she confided in her parents and church elders but was told not to alert police to avoid bringing shame on the religion.

Now Ms Palmer, who waived her right to anonymity to speak out, has repeated the claims in a BBC interview.

A second woman, from Worcestershire, made an identical allegation, the BBC said.

Ms Palmer, who used to live in Halesowen , said: “I asked (the organisation): ‘What should I do? Do you report it to the police, [or] do I report it to the police’?

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

Davenport was jailed for 14 years after he was convicted of committing rape and sexual assaults at the former family home in Halesowen.

His sentence was later cut to ten years on appeal .

Ms Palmer was only five when her 14-year-old started molesting her.

He had moved into a caravan in the ­family’s garden because of a strained atmosphere in the house.

A court heard he offered to take the victim to stay with him, allegedly to shield her from domestic violence scenes, but used it as an opportunity to abuse her.

For six years Davenport put her through hell.

He ­stopped only when her periods started and he feared she might get pregnant.

The BBC said it had spoken to “multiple” abuse victims who made claims of abuse while in the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

And it quoted a lawyer who, it said, believed there could be thousands of victims who had not come forward because of the organisation’s “two witness” rule.

It means that, for any sin committed, there must be two witnesses in order for the elders of the congregation to take any action.

In a statement to the BBC, the Jehovah’s Witnesses 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 reporting so was “not contingent on the number of witnesses to the offence”.

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

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”.