>> I no longer can be silent.
I remember being lifted up out
of my bed.
>> I said to my dad, I think
something happened to me.
>> We didn't know how many other
victims there were and still
don't.
>> Former jehovah's witnesses
tell their chilling stories of
alleged abuse for the first
time.
One of them is Sarah brooks.
>> Sarah brooks grew up a
jehovah's witness in
Pennsylvania and she has an
abuse story that has layers of
cover-up.
There's an elder who says that
he was present when the elders
worked to cover up her abuse.
>> Hello.
>> My name is martin hawk.
I live in newcomerland,
Pennsylvania.
I was a jehovah's witness for 38
years.
When I became an elder, the
first elders meeting they
brought us up to speed and
Sarah's case was brought up.
She never mentioned a person's
name, who abused her.
All I knew is there was a sexual
encounter that happened in her
past.
>> Sarah claims she was abused
by a man and woman who were
close to her family and she
reported it to the elders of her
congregation.
Martin goes on to tell trey what
she remembers of the
documentation of Sarah's abuse
claim.
>> The committee was informed by
three elders to get the details
of the case.
She had been retelling the story
over and over again and they
were taking detailed notes of
how many times this abuse
happened, how severe the abuse
was.
Shortly after that, she went to
the police.
The police got a warrant to come
to the kingdom hall to look for
records.
The top elder said he bought a
shredder and corporate
headquarters has told us to
shred our personal notes we have
made for the case.
>> The two-night special starts
this Saturday.
We're now joined by Sarah brooks
herself and trey Bundy, who
investigated the case.
Nice to meet you both.
Sarah, what fs it like watching
that little piece back there?
>> It's definitely a trigger.
It's difficult to watch.
It was difficult to go through
then.
It's difficult to go through
now.
But there's a weight that's been
lifted off my shoulders in
telling it and having people
listen and to believe my story
and help me fight this fight.
>> Trey, when you started
investigating this, at what
point did you realize how big
this actually was?
>> We figured out pretty early
in the reporting that not only
were the jehovah's witnesses
covering up a lot of child abuse
but they were actually holding
on to a database of names of
child abusers all over the
country, and this database has
been secret, secret from the
courts, secret from law
enforcement, and these
perpetrators were out there and
that's when we knew.
>> What's going on with the
database now?
>> It's the subject of a fight
in civil court in California,
and it's about to be the subject
of fight in civil court in other
states where survivors like
Sarah are coming forward and
filing lawsuits against the
watch tower.
The watch tower wants to keep
this secret.
They don't want anybody to see
what's in there.
As far as we know law
enforcement hasn't gone after it
and the courts have not had luck
getting it but there's at least
20 years worth of names in that
database.
>> As you investigated with the
jehovah's witnesses and tried to
go to them and get answers, how
were you treated?
What did you get?
>> The watch tower society, the
headquarters of the jehovah's
witnesses in New York, they
refused any interview request.
This goes back five years so
they're essentially hoping the
story goes away.
I have had some experiences
talking to individual jehovah's
witnesses in congregations.
When you meet them, most
jehovah's witnesses are shocked
to hear this is how child abuse
is handled in their religion.
>> What did you think about
that, Sarah, when you heard
that?
There has to be others like you
growing up with this and when
you hear most others are shocked
to hear allegations or how
they're handled.
>> Yes, for the longest time I
was abused and there after I
thought I was the one one, no
one could have gone through what
I went through.
It's only when I started telling
my story that I realized this is
much bigger than I could have
imagined.
I'm by far not alone.
This needs to be talked about
and discussed and really brought
out even more than it has been.
I'm not alone.
We need to gather together and
fight this together.
>> What do you want to happen,
Sarah?
>> I want change.
I want change within the
jehovah's witness congregations.
I want them to handle he things
differently.
The rules are wrong, downright
wrong and needs to be changed.
And they need to be stopped.
Otherwise they will continue to
go on the way they have.
>> Thank you for your bravery.
Nice to meet you both.
Trey, great work.
We reached out to the jehovah's
witnesses of America and they
did not respond to the alleges
contained in the oxygen series.
They tell us they condemn child
abuse and claim they have
processes if place to assure
compliance with child abuse
reporting laws.