SEXUAL ASSAULT:

Dorte Tveiti: Molested. He stole my childhood

Hi Randy
My wife, an ex-Witness, has written a book about growing up in the Jehovah's Witrness faith, and about her father that had molested her for about 10 years, from the age of 3 to 12 years.
The book firm is trying to find a book firm in an English-speaking country.
Here is the link for the book:
http://www.documentas.dk/udgivelser/overgreb.htm

Link to a newspaper article:
http://www.bt.dk/nyheder/artikel:aid=224726/
http://www.bt.dk/nyheder/artikel:aid=224722/

Here is a translation of the article:

I became pregnant by my father at age 12.


Dorte Tveiti - today age 39, tells about her horrible experience.

Dorte Tveiti, the author of the book "Sexual Assault", reported that her father in 2001 (age 81) was in her childhood subjecting her to threats and violence and for having sexually molested her, and impregnating her at the age of 12, let her give birth to the child and then killed it.

Loegstoer police charged the father and interrogated members of the family, but the state attorney did not press charges against the man on account of lack of proof and Statute of Limitations.

The body of the baby was never recovered. There was however found a body of a baby by the churchyard of Naesbrog, not far away from the family farm at Aars. The local priest, which was supposed to have knowledge of the body is deceased.

"It could have been the child I gave birth to and which my father killed. It at least can't be dismissed," says Dorte Tveiti.

By TORBEN BAGGE

Dorte Tveiti, 39, mother of 3, now send out a shocking book about her horrifying childhood with a sexually perverted father, which made his 12 year old daughter pregnant, let her give birth to the child and then killed it.

"I had 3-4 contractions, then I gave birth to a little girl. My mother is taking her, she holds her up in front of me while my father cut the umbilical cord. My mother put her on a desk and my father picks her up. My little girl cries as a normal baby, then my father takes her out into the kitchen, After a few seconds she stops crying. There is silence." These words could have been the description of any normal birth in Denmark. But for Dorte Tveiti. 39, studying pedagogics in Lemvig, the birth and the minutes thereafter - which should have been a happy occasion in a woman's life - was the culmination of an unparalleled nightmare.

Honest and unveiling she has chosen to describe her horrible childhood experience in the autobiography "Sexual Assault", which is published at the publishing house Documentas.

Abused at age 3

"Since the age of 3, I was subjected to the worst crime that can befall a child. I was abused sexually by my father. It culminated when he made me pregnant at the age of 12. At the age of 13, I was forced to give birth to his child on the dinner table at home. "

"Just after the birth he disappeared with the child and killed it", says Dorte Tveiti, which after years of therapy with a psychiatrist finally has the courage to come out with her identity and the story in all its details.

"By writing this book I have been able to sort out all the horrible things. Together with frequent sessions with a psychiatrist and also by the help of an understanding and patient man - the book has been valuable therapy for me."

"It has been like digging your way to the bottom of an enormous compost heap, layer by layer. Finally I can say that I have achieved a form of inner peace. I have now learned to live with those depressing memories. With this book I hope to give help to others with deep psychological wounds."

For many years she suppressed and denied the horrible experience. She was in the middle of her thirties when she chose to go into the process of uncovering the past and then choose to go to the police.

Police and the state attorney have chosen to dismiss the case - partly because of the Statute of Limitations and also because of lack of evidence. There is no body of any child found.

Parents deny

The parents, which she today has broken all contact with, denies all of accusations. But an elder sister has sworn to the police that the abuse really took place.

A number of testimonies from people knowing the family also confirm the suspicions of a serious crime. Even the earliest experiences are seared into the minds of Dorte Tveiti's mind:

"When I was about 3 years, I am in the living room with my dad. He started to run after me, while he smiles and laugh. I am very scared, I scream. But my father catches me, lie me down on the ottoman, takes off my underpants and has intercourse with me. I am screaming but he tells me to shut up."

"While he still tells me to shut up he drags me through the living room into the wash room up the stairs trough a bedroom and into my room where he beats me. My mother and sister is also in the room, they both have stony faces. When my father has left my sister comes over to comfort me."

Through all her childhood Dorte Tveiti has to suffer a hard mixture of sexual abuse threats and violence. The family, all the members are Jehovah's Witnesses, they live an isolated life on a farm in the Aars district in North Jutland - maybe an explanation for why no one on the outside reacts.

Dorte Tveiti: "When I was about 11 years, I went into the stable behind the manure heap. After having closed the door I saw that my father was in the room. He commanded me, 'Come here!' I was too scared to refuse. He grabs me and bangs me several times against the wall, while he says, 'You bastard child, I hate you. One day I will kill you.' "

"After that he grabs under my chin pressing his hand on my throat and my head against the wall. After a while his rage subsides and he leaves."

"In another incident - I am about 12 - I am sitting on the ottoman of my sister's room. My father comes in and he wants to have sex, but he grabs my throat and squeezes it. I panic because I am convinced I am going to die. Suddenly he lets go and leaves the room," tells Dorte Tveiti, which doesn't hide that her mother knew about the abuse.

"It is my mother that discovers that I am pregnant. But this happens after several months. Presumably she notices like others that I am suddenly gaining weight and with her knowledge of my father's sexual abuse she understands what's happened."

Jehovah's Witnesses: You are possessed

"One day she draw me aside and ask me if it isn't a long time since I had my period. I admit that this is the case hoping that my mother knows what to do. My mother asks me: 'Is it you father who has done this?' "

Among Jehovah's Witnesses Dorte Tveiti finds no sympathy: "Both my parents and the members of the sect had agreed that I had to be possessed by the devil to make such accusations."

Normally the sect would disfellowship such a person. But strangely enough this hasn't happened. "I have of course broken all connections with the sect," says Dorte Tveiti, which under the work with her book has got the support of the well-known author Jane Amund.

The author has also written in the foreword of the book, "Jane is a wonderful understanding human being. My conversations with her has meant a lot to me both psychical and physical."
 

Dorte Tveiti: Molested. He stole my childhood.

True story told to Flemming Hove. Documentas Publishers.

To be published October 2003. 160 pages, ill.

Molested is the powerful tale of the cruelest fate that can befall a child. Throughout her childhood, Dorte’s father subjected her to severe sexual abuse. The abuse culminated when she was 13, got pregnant and gave birth to a child that was the result of the father’s sexual perversion.

For many years, Dorte remembered nothing of her childhood. Then, at a class reunion, he memories started to surface.

Molested tells how Dorte and her husband Hans Jørn have fought to reveal the truth. This struggle has also involved a confrontation with Jehovah’s Witnesses.

At the same time, the book is an incredible story about a woman’s struggle to find happiness in spite of personal tragedy.

In her foreword, best selling Danish author Jane Aamund writes:

“I met the young, likeable couple Dorte and Hans Jørn Tveiti in my home. Hans Jørn made an emotional plea for my help and my confidence and shared his grief over what had happened to his family.

I asked Hans Jørn Tveiti to return with his wife, so that she could be present when we talked about her experiences…

Dorte was an attractive, quiet woman, intelligent and articulate. She told her horrendous story, and it was no ordinary family she was talking about. Hers was an unhappy and insecure childhood; the details were dreadful.

Dorte and her husband not only fought the effects of the molestations she and her sister had been the victims of, but also fought Jehovah’s Witnesses, the powerful organization that refused to believe her story and covered up similar cases that had come to its attention…

I asked Dorte: “When you are about to go to sleep at night, and the memories wash over you, what do you do?”

Dorte looked at me and said quietly: “I pray to God that no harm will come to any child tonight.”

I replied that the more people share their experiences, the greater is the hope that pedophiles will be punished and removed from the children…

Dorte Tveitis book is almost like a case report, and that is why it has such a dramatic effect and conjures up so many images. You can visualize her home; you can feel the atmosphere and sense the oppression.”

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