Despite all the comments on the Charity commission case - Its not too bad for the WTBTS.
The Judge found in their favour on a number of key issues - the dates on the papers, the signatures were correct, it was nice paper and they used expensive QC's. It is, however worth noting that the Judge was not exactly supportive and found the CC were within their rights to investigate because:-
Judge found the manchester congregation was doing what the Bethel told them
Judge found the Manchester Cong had offloaded the hearing to a circuit committee (Not us gov)
Judge found WTBTS had been evasive and not open
Judge found differences in JW testimony
Judge found JW public behaviour under question
Judge found that members of the congregation were in danger
Judge found significant concerns about the charity to warrant a full investigation
Judge found Charity had failed to answer the direct questions put to it about the treatment of the complainants during the disfellowshipping of Mr Rose
Judge found Long-standing practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses together raised serious questions about the charity trustees’ ability to comply with their legal duties
Judge found on-going grounds for concern about the Charity’s conduct of safeguarding matters
Judge found no evidence of best practice
Judge found concern over the adequacy of the Charity’s arrangements for the safeguarding of members of the Congregation
Judge found that the arrangement of a confrontation of an accuser by their accused, as happened in Mr Rose’s case, is official guidance for Jehovah’s Witness Congregations and even quoted the page from the shepherding book.
It would be good to investigate when the trading accounts are registered - how much the WTBTS QC's costs are, because thats tax free contributed monies. My 5 bob is it will be north of 150k GBP (ie 5 kingdom halls in Africa).
What do you think the mood is now in WT London - full of confidence? A tad concerned?
Jim