December 1998 Sex case ‘sinner’ is jailed A Jehovah’s Witness who confessed his sins after sexually abusing two girls has been jailed for three years. John Miller, 57, pleaded guilty to a total of eight sex offences which were committed between 1994 and 1998. The Court heard he was guilty of despicable crimes and ordered him to register as a sex offender. Bradford Crown Court heard how the matters came to light when one of the girls, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, eventually told her mother what had happened. Miller, who had been a practising Jehovah’s Witness for around ten years, then made a confession to the elders of the Bradford Kingdom Hall Church before going to the police. Ordering Miller to be placed on a sex offenders’ register for ten years, Recorder Jonathan Durham-Hall QC told him he had behaved in a manner that was “utterley despicable.” Richard Mansell, prosecuting, said Miller had indecently assaulted one girl on two occasions while visiting people on ministry work and committed an act of indecency between 1994 and 1996. A year later, he visited Bridlington every so often to help with the building of a new Kingdom Hall church. While Miller was there, he carried out an indecent assault on another girl including four acts of indecency. Miller, formerly of Thorpe Avenue, Thornton, Bradford, admitted five charges of indecency and three of indecent assaults. Colin Harvey, mitigating, said that Miller used to be a hard-drinking, hard-fighting, smoking, gambling man who had turned meek, mild, and intelligent since becoming a Jehovah’s Witness. Miller became “more and more sexually isolated within himself” after his wife began to suffer from ill-health, he said. “Mr Miller is going to remain with the Jehovah’s Witness community. They do not excommunicate people. They address the sin and not the sinner,” he said. Terry Rooney, MP for Bradford North, who campaigns for tougher sentences for child sex offenders, said: “These girls will be traumatised for the rest of their lives and this man gets three years in jail and is then free to do it again. “I have bombarded the Home Secretary with letters about individuals and cases in Bradford. This will be another example that I will be sending. “These people should be taken out of circulation for life. There is no cure for these people and the re-offending rate is horrendously high. “I don’t know how any judge can justify giving anyone less than ten years.”