The organisation, which has almost 70,000 active members in Australia, failed to report serious abuse claims to police in favour of internal investigations overseen by church elders.

The opening day of the hearing into the Jehovah's Witnesses at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard that detailed notes about sexual abuse allegations were destroyed in case they fell into the "wrong hands".

Church elder Max Horley​ told the commission the organisation did not report abuse to police but encouraged victims to do so.

When asked by commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan​ how victims were encouraged to go to the police, Mr Horley replied: "My understanding is a little unclear because I've never had to do it."

The commission heard evidence that Mr Horley handled an abuse complaint involving a former member of his congregation in Western Australia, who has been given the pseudonym BCB.

BCB alleged she was repeatedly molested by a church elder from the age of 15.

Mr Horley said at the time he did not believe the abuse was a crime.

"I knew it wasn't right; I didn't realise it might have been a criminal matter," he said.

He told the commission he made notes about the case but records were routinely destroyed "because we don't want them to fall into the wrong hands" such as their wives or other members of the congregation.

In her evidence before the commission, BCB, now 47, said the alleged abuse by church elder Bill Neill, since deceased, had resulted in her nervous breakdown.

"The abuse changed who I was," she said. "It destroyed my confidence and my self esteem. Even though the sexual abuse stopped when I was 19, I still feel like Bill's victim."

Counsel assisting the royal commission Angus Stewart SC said the church had recorded 1006 cases involving individual perpetrators within the organisation since 1950.

"Evidence will be put before the Royal Commission that, of the 1006 alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse identified by the Jehovah's Witness Church since 1950, not one was reported by the Church to secular authorities," he said.

Elders could face criminal charges for concealing sex crimes, Mr Stewart said.

He told the commission that serious complaints were assessed by a committee of church elders.

The commission heard that the church abhors child sexual abuse which it recognises as a "gross sin and crime".

"Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the only way to finally end child abuse is to, as they put it, 'embrace God's kingdom under Christ' and to 'love God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself' so as to be saved when the end comes," Mr Stewart said.

The commission was told that since 1950, 401 members had been cast out or "disfellowshipped" over sex abuse allegations but more than half were later reinstated and some were promoted to senior positions within the church.

Almost 60 people have contacted the royal commission regarding allegations of child sexual abuse within the Jehovah's Witnesses, with two to give evidence.

The hearing continues.

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