Leaked documents have raised questions about how the Jehovah's Witnesses dealt with child sex abuse allegations against a local church leader.

The trove of documents, released on Tuesday by the new whistleblower group FaithLeaks, show the Warwick, New York-based church hierarchy's internal handling of explosive allegations.

Unredacted versions of the 69 pages of documents were viewed in advance and corroborated by Gizmodo.

In 1999, two adult women came forward to leaders in a Brimfield, Massachusetts congregation, the documents show.

The women warned the elders about physical and sexual abuse they said they suffered as children at the hands of their father, a ministerial servant. The position assists the elders and is appointed by the church hierarchy.

The younger daughter alleged her father had begun molesting her at age three, and that she suffered 'four years of continuous rape' starting at age eight.

'She described that her father would sit on the bed afterward and cry as he prayed with her,' the congregation's elders wrote in a letter to religion's global headquarters in New York, The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society's former Brooklyn headquarters is seen. A new document trove sheds light on how the group handled explosive child sex allegations

Known simply as The Watchtower, the group then based in Brooklyn exercises strict control over Jehovah's Witness congregations worldwide.

The elder daughter said that the abuse began in 1974, when she was five years old, claiming that her father would tie her naked and spread-eagle to her bed.

'[She] expressed that though never actually penetrating her, he did repeatedly touch her and examine her over a period of many months,' the elders wrote.

Subsequent documents indicate the father admitted to 'inspecting' her vagina for signs of masturbation.

Despite finding the allegations credible, church elders were unable to take the matter to an internal judicial committee because the younger daughter was not 'emotionally prepared to defend herself before' her father.

Church rules required an accuser to confront the accused in person with allegations.

The matter couldn't proceed on the older daughter's claims alone either, because church rules, citing Biblical passages, required two witnesses or a confession for a matter to proceed, according to the documents.

'Probe the state police thing!' handwritten notes from a 2003 meeting with the younger daughter's husband read, apparently expressing concern that she had contacted authorities

Throughout the documents, there are indications that the church sought to keep the matter out of the hands of law enforcement officials, preferring to handle it internally.

'Probe the state police thing!' handwritten notes from a 2003 meeting with the younger daughter's husband read, apparently expressing concern that she had contacted secular authorities.

Another memo from regional church leaders seems to chastise one of the accuser's husbands, a church elder, for calling the police to a church building after the father violated a restraining order.

'No doubt [the alleged abuser] was publicly humiliated by the manner of this arrest,' the memo reads.

The matter did lead to to an internal judicial committee in May of 2003, after the younger daughter screwed up the courage to accuse her father over a conference call with elders listening.

This internal judicial committee agenda shows the religious approach to adjudicating the daughters' accusations. 'Porneia' is the Biblical Greek word for fornication

The alleged abuser was punished with disfellowship, which is similar to excommunication. However the measure was reversed a year later, the documents show.

It is not the first time the Jehovah's Witnesses have been accused of excessive secrecy around and protection of child sex abusers.

The church has spent millions fighting and violating court orders to produce documents tracking suspected child abusers in its congregations, according to Reveal.

The Watchtower did not respond to Gizmodo's request for comment on the new document dump.

'Every organization, whether it's religious or not, is going to have people who do bad things,' FaithLeaks co-founder Ryan McKnight told the outlet.

'So the mere fact that there may exist some sort of sexual abuse in a church is not automatically a condemnation of that organization. What it boils down to is how they handle it.'