A FORMER Jehovah’s Witness who actively campaigns for tougher child protection in the church says he still has serious concerns about the organisation’s new policy on the issue.

Steve Rose, 52, from Hartlepool, accepts the new – leaked - directions to elders are an improvement, but believes the guidelines do not go far enough.

The church has many times strongly refuted any allegations that it does not take child abuse extremely seriously.

Mr Rose, who has been interviewed as part of an on-going Charity Commission investigation into the church, criticised the stipulation that all allegations of child abuse reported to the church elders are to be passed further up the Jehovah’s Witness organisation instead of being directly forwarded to the police.

He also said the Jehovah Witnesses’ so-called ‘two-witness’ rule, where two people are need to establish a sin to its judicial body, should be abolished.

Mr Rose, who has received a Courage Award from the organisation Silent Lambs for his campaigning, said: “It is frowned upon to go outside the religion with reports of child abuse.

"In the bible it says never take your brother to court. The elders use that scripture to keep a tight grip on its members.”

Before the new directive to elders, the Jehovah's Witnesses told The Northern Echo that: “the victim and his or her parents have the absolute right to report the matter to the governmental authorities.”

And now the church says it has tightened up policy to protect children further. From now on a child alleging abuse will no longer have to face their abuser in front of elders. A Witness who is repentant will be ‘reproached,’ or admonished, in front of the whole congregation.

A spokesman for the Jehovah’s Witness church said it does not comment on leaked documents but said: “We are constantly trying to improve ways in which we can safeguard children.”

Previously an organisation spokesman said: “Anyone who commits the sin of child abuse faces expulsion from the congregation.”

Mr Rose was “disfellowshipped” - expelled - from the church for “gossiping.” He accepts he should have been disciplined but not “shunned.” He was given a warning by a Teesside Crown Court judge last year for taking photographs in the court during a hearing involving a member of Hartlepool’s Jehovah Witnesses.