Bed of Lies · The Telegraph

Introducing: Call Bethel

June 20, 2022·35 min·2 clips

At age three or four, Daria was lifted to see a spider in a shed when her abuser first touched her.

The road to Bethel feels watched. Catherine Rushton is outside the Jehovah's Witness headquarters, near the giant JW.org signs, ready to deliver a letter that has taken a long time to reach this point. A tip-off starts the investigation. It points to a library of information inside the campus, including admissions by paedophiles and material that could help protect children. Then the episode tightens around Daria's memory of Peter Stewart. In her religious life, he was always there. Other people saw him as kind or gentlemanly. She remembers him differently. The brown inhaler stayed in her mind, along with what she knew about him. Meetings, preparation, field service, and Watchtower study shape the rhythm of her childhood. Stewart led most of her religious study, which put him inside the house often enough for familiarity to become danger. The hardest part is left plain. Daria describes being very young, drawn to a spider in the shed at the back of the garden. She was around three or four and not yet at school. Without birthdays or Christmas, she has few markers to place the memory. The episode does not soften the allegation, and it does not make a spectacle of it. It closes by returning to documents, reporting credits, and a request for information that could help the investigation continue.

As heard by us

Measured reporting turns a doorstep confrontation into a chilling account of secrecy and abuse.

The episode opens near Jehovah's Witness headquarters at Bethel, with a reporter trying to deliver a letter tied to a tip about a library of information meant to protect children, including admissions by paedophiles.

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Why you'd press play

You want a steady entry into a year-long investigation into allegations of child abuse at Jehovah's Witness headquarters.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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