Ten years before his election to Parliament, Sam Carling was starting to question almost everything he knew.
Britain's youngest MP was raised a Jehovah's Witness, and as a child was a "regular participant" in what he now describes as a "high-control religious group."
But at 11, his strict religious upbringing began to clash with an intrinsic part of his identity when he realised he was gay.
Carling, Labour MP for North West Cambridgeshire, was highly critical of the organisation when he spoke last week in the House of Commons, where Parliamentary privilege allows MPs to discuss issues without the risk of legal action.
He claimed Jehovah's Witnesses' teachings regularly equated homosexuality with paedophilia.
He said there was a "culture of non-reporting and forgiveness for child abusers" within the organisation and that it had covered up child abuse "on a catastrophic level".
Carling, 23, also claimed Jehovah's Witnesses were ordered to shun family and friends considered to have committed a "serious sin in the eyes of the religion".
He called for the group to be stripped of its charitable status and is campaigning to improve safeguards against child sexual abuse.
A Jehovah's Witnesses spokesperson told the BBC that "we totally disagree with all of Mr Carling's allegations", describing them as "demonstrably false".
Jehovah's Witnesses are members of a Christian-based religious movement, probably best known for its door-to-door evangelism.
The organisation claims about 144,000 active members in the UK, and about nine million worldwide.
Carling remembers growing up in the organisation in County Durham as "really hard" and, at times, "very isolating."
"You're very much taught from a young age that we're not part of this world; that we are God's true group of people," he told the BBC.
Unlike many other followers, Carling was not home-schooled but explained how "you're very much encouraged not to make friends outside of the religion."
As a young gay man, he said, the experience was made all the worse.
He said barely a week would go by without "a sermon about how gay people are evil."
"Religious teachings regularly equate homosexuality with paedophilia - they are lumped together,"
he said.
Carling was not baptised, so when he left the religion fully at 13, was never subject to "disfellowshipping", a practice he claims is widespread among members.
He told Parliament: "When someone commits a serious sin in the eyes of the religion, their believing family and friends are ordered to shut them off entirely and treat them as though they are dead."
Speaking to the BBC, he said: "I was OK, but there are ample examples of children that grow up gay in the Jehovah's Witnesses who then go on to die to suicide."
Carling said he maintained a good relationship with his family.
In response, the Jehovah's Witnesses said: "Former congregants are welcome to attend our religious services at any time; they will be warmly welcomed.
"Family relationships and natural affection continue in the home."
Speaking in Parliament, Carling said there was a "culture of non-reporting and forgiveness for child abusers" within Jehovah's Witness communities, with abusers "remaining at large."
He argued the group systemically failed to report child sexual abuse, because of a "strong culture of distrusting secular authorities."
"There is ample evidence that religious leaders regularly stop victims or their parents reporting abuse to police because it will bring reproach on God's name,"
he alleged.
Pressed for his evidence by the BBC, Carling pointed to a study commissioned by the Australian government that found the Jehovah's Witnesses did not report 1,000 alleged abusers.
"That is not an accident; it is a systemic cover-up on a catastrophic level,"
Carling told Parliament.
* Details of help and support with child sexual abuse and sexual abuse or violence are available in the UK at BBC Action Line.
He told the BBC he did not have figures for the UK because there had not been a detailed study.
Asked if he personally knew people who had been sexually abused in the organisation, he said he did know someone but would not share details in order to protect their anonymity.
The organisation said: "Jehovah's Witnesses abhor child sexual abuse, maintain clear, globally applied safeguarding policies, and teach that anyone with knowledge of abuse is free to report it to the authorities."
Carling is campaigning for the mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, a key recommendation of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which reported in 2022.
But he said the government's Crime and Policing Bill risked "watering down" the proposals.
He told the BBC: "There are going to be [in the bill] professional sanctions for people who are DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) regulated, but that's not the case in some religious organisations."
He said for Jehovah's Witness volunteer elders and preachers, "there'll basically be no sanction for not complying" with the reporting duty.
The Jehovah's Witnesses disputed such allegations, saying "our elders comply with all legal reporting requirements and cooperate fully with law enforcement".
But would a legal obligation really make a difference in an organisation that, according to Carling, gives secular laws short shrift?
"I would argue so, because it would mean that they have a personal stake in it,"
he said, adding that "there would be significant sanctions for not complying with that duty."
A Home Office spokesperson told the BBC: "We are committed to tackling the horrors of child sexual abuse and getting justice for victims and survivors.
"The duty to report in the bill already carries very serious consequences for failing to make a report, including being barred from ever working with children."
Carling also wants charity laws to change, exempting groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses.
"There are a lot of small religious organisations in this country who get away with teaching abhorrent things and still are able to be registered as charities,"
he said.
Carling said an organisation should only get charitable status if it did "genuinely good work."
In response, a Jehovah's Witnesses spokesperson said: "Our charities meet the legal requirements for charitable status while carrying out recognised religious and charitable activities in the public interest."
Elected in 2024's Labour landslide, Carling is keen to use his platform to give a voice to other former Jehovah's Witnesses.
"There are a lot of people who've left that religion that have the same concerns that I do,"
he said.
"But people within the religion rarely find out about them because they're all told the people who leave are essentially possessed by Satan or mentally diseased."
In a statement to BBC News, the Jehovah's Witnesses' global director of communications, Andrew Basoo, said: "We are confident that those who know us -our friends, neighbours, colleagues,and local partners - will recognise these allegations as baseless and wholly at odds with our conduct and beliefs.
"Our beliefs are well known and can be consulted by anyone,in more than 1,000 languages,on our official website."