There was a couple that we knew very well, infact grew up with, more or less, when we were still JWs.
The husband was always weird as a child. He was a fantasist, hopelessly spoiled by his mother and father, so that he was so indulged he would believe all his fantasies and he grew stranger, and was known for lying and sometimes a violent temper. He married a lovely young pioneer sister who he met at pioneer school. Her parents were 'unhappy' about the match. They tried to keep their daughter away from him, but the girl was 'in love' with this tall, handsome pioneer and accepted his silly mothers advice to come and live with them until the wedding.
They married. But they found that his parents interfered with everything, even having the key to their flat and coming and going as she wished so that she could ' straighten things out' and help them. They even caught his parents going through their private papers. But 'they were only trying to help them.'
The young couple decided to move away, and for the purposes of annonymity, we'll say to Wales. But the young brother fell in with a bad ass JW study who had a prison record. Every few weeks mysterious brown envelopes would arrive and the JW would pass it on to the 'study.' Then 'strange things' began going on in the surrounding woods. They believed later on it was to do with illegal animal fights, badgers/ dogs, they never found out. One night, after numerous visits and questions from the police, they opened one of the hidden brown envelopes and found to their disgust, and in their words 'the most evil child pornography it is possible to imagine.' They DID NOT report it to the police, afraid of what they might be implicated in.
Then, the brother found himself in trouble with the police as he was in possession of 'legally restricted animals.' Because the animals were not kept in the right conditions and were suffering he ended up with a police criminal record. He had a break down. The police however, for some reason, would not leave them alone and continued questioning them.
One night, 'someone' tried to burn the house down of the young JW couple. The police suspected the JW young brother and though she said nothing, so did his wife. She had just given birth to a baby and they had to escape down the back of the house on tied up sheets. It was a traumatic event for her.
The young JW continued in his strange behaviour and they moved back to be near her parents. But interference from his parents got worse and worse. They would not leave their son and his wife alone.
As time wore on the JW couple stopped attending meetings and so did his parents. They talked about how the ~Witnesses were like the Gestapo, as they found out that their son had a 'record' at the Bethel and with the Elders for being mentally unstable and possible very violent. (He had boasted about beating up his parents on a couple of occassions).
Last Spring. The JW sister left her husband once and for all with out any warning to him or his family. Her family helped her. She was afraid of her unstable husband and felt he had tried to kill her all those years ago and that he was still prone to violent temper tantrums. She could take NO more.
What did we find? Both the JW brother and his parents suddenly after 7 years began frantically attending ALL the meetings. Why? Not just for the sympathy vote, me thinks.
We realised after talking to them, they actually believe that if they go to the meetings, they will be believed over their daughter in law. They think, that what she says will not 'count' with any solicitor, lawyer, or police man, because they 'are the Christians who go to all the meetings and so can't possibly be lying.'
E..... , if you're reading this and you recognise yourself, please contact me, J...... and we promise to do everything we can to help you.
PM me if you do recognise yourself, and give me your parents phone number and we WILL not let you down.
Love
Gill