Gloriavale leader goes on trial
Gloriavale leader Howard Temple will go on trial in Greymouth today on charges of sexual offending against girls for more than 20 years.
The 85-year-old faces 14 charges of indecent assault and 13 charges of doing an indecent act.
The complainants were aged between nine and 20 at the time of the alleged offending, between 1998 and 2022.
According to court documents, 21 of the charges are representative, meaning multiple offences of the same type are alleged to have been committed in similar circumstances.
Temple first appeared in court in July 2023.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges in August of that year and elected a judge-alone trial.
Temple, a former US naval engineer, took up the mantle of Overseeing Shepherd at the West Coast Christan community after the death of founder Hopeful Christian in 2018.
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Otago Daily Times
7 minutes ago
- Otago Daily Times
More than 5000 complaints of shoplifting not investigated across NZ
By Sam Sherwood of RNZ More than 5000 complaints of shoplifting below $500 were not forwarded for investigation while a controversial police directive was in place, documents released to RNZ reveal. RNZ earlier revealed a directive was sent to staff relating to police's File Management Centre (FMC) titled 'Assignment Changes - Theft and Fraud'. The directive said FMC was applying "nationally standardised value thresholds" when assessing theft and fraud files. The value thresholds were: General theft $200, petrol drive off $150, shoplifting $500, fraud (PayWave, online, scam etc) $1000, and all other fraud $500. "When assessing files with these offences, you will apply the relevant value threshold and file any file under that threshold regardless of any lines of enquiry or IFA score," it said. Following the revelations Police Commissioner Richard Chambers canned the directive, which he called "confusing and unhelpful" following significant backlash. On Wednesday, RNZ was released a series of documents from police under the Official Information Act. Among the documents was a tally of shoplifting complaints under $500 during the period the directive was in place. It revealed there were 5454 complaints of shoplifting that were not assigned for investigation. In Auckland, only 73 of 927 complaints were assigned, in Canterbury 192 of 742, Wellington 131 of 694. Chambers earlier said he was unaware of the directive until RNZ revealed it. A staffer from the police minister's office emailed Chambers on the evening of 26 May about an RNZ article on the memo. "It would be helpful if we could get some clarity as to what the policy actually is and clear up the messaging around this," the email said. Chambers replied that he had liaise with Rachael Bambery, the executive director of service, victims and resolutions and asked for a briefing to him and the Minister's office to "sort the messaging out". "For the record the messaging about not following up shoplifting complaints under a certain threshold is not correct and unhelpful. A range of information is taken into account when assessing complaints and this will inform what Police does. "We have seen very effective approaches to retail crime in locations such as Tauranga and Gisborne which set the standard in terms of what is achievable, irrespective of threshold." Shortly after another email from a parliamentary email asked to be looped into any communications being sent about the limits on investigating shoplifting. "We can see there's a bit of traction tonight." Chambers replied: "I don't agree with the content, and we need to provide some reassurance and better messaging to retail sector". The following morning Chambers released a statement and said the memo did not meet his expectations on retail crime. The directive Also in the OIA is a document titled 'Service Group Continuous Improvement Project' dated January 2025. The document said to provide a more "efficient and consistent service and to meet increasing demand", the FMC was moving from a regional model to a national model. "This will allow the FMC workload to be triaged, prioritised and actioned by FMC staff across the country, rather than the FMC staff physically based within Districts." The process for assigning volume crime files was "inefficient, with avoidable time delays and double handling". Volume crime cases made up 62 per cent of daily reports, of which 70 per cent were theft, fraud and burglary. It was proposed that the FMC and 105-non emergency teams would assign volume crime cases based on the solvability only, with "streamlined assignment rules" across the Districts. "By standardising processes like assignment rules, FMC can move towards utilising its workforce more efficiently, freeing up capacity to do higher value and higher priority services." The document included the proposed value thresholds. The value thresholds were: General theft $200, petrol drive off $150, shoplifting $500, fraud (PayWave, online, scam etc) $1000, and all other fraud $500. On March 17, Superintendent Blair MacDonald sent the email earlier revealed by RNZ that from 26 March the thresholds would be in place. The documents include an email from 7 April revealing the number of files being assigned for investigation since the rules were put in place 12 days earlier. In the email, the police adviser, said Wellington had the biggest change from an average of 60 per day to an average of 30. The numbers were being compared to baseline data over a 47-day period before the threshold was put into place. During the same period Auckland City had a 26 per cent decrease, Counties Manukau 21 per cent, Eastern 38 per cent, Central 42 per cent and Canterbury 13 per cent. Waikato had a 2.7 per cent increase, which the staffer said was due to filed being reassigned and appearing twice. 'Unable to investigate further' The OIA also includes a template that had been created to send to victims whose crimes did not meet the threshold. The email thanked the victims for reporting their crime but said they "regret to advise, at this time, Police is unable to investigate further". "While we would like to resolve all matters to our victims' complete satisfaction, there are occasions where we cannot. "Investigations are prioritised using a range of factors including legal timeframes and the likelihood of a successful conviction." The email said police appreciated this may be "frustrating and upsetting" to hear, "particularly if you reported the incident recently or provided lines of enquiry". "We will however review your case if our ability to resolve this matter changes." Police Minister Mark Mitchell told RNZ he was "pleased that the Police Commissioner moved quickly to clarify Police's position, initiate a review of relevant cases, and reassure the retail sector and the public that Police will continue to enforce the law with their usual discretion". Review under way Police earlier launched a review to establish how many cases of retail crime were filed while the controversial directive was in place. A police spokesperson earlier confirmed to RNZ the national value threshold applied to the prioritisation of lower-level theft and fraud offences was being removed. "A review is being completed on any cases that may have been impacted by those thresholds to assess whether they should be assigned to districts for follow-up," the spokesperson said. The review will be done by police's data quality team. "Police want to reassure that cases will continue to be managed locally balancing demand, resources and priorities to ensure the best possible service to victims in those communities." Rachael Bambery, Executive Director Service, Victims, Resolutions said it was not correct to assume that all the closures were due to the monetary thresholds for early case closure. Some may have had no information or evidence to follow up on. She confirmed police were completing a review on files that were closed previously due to the monetary threshold. That review was focused on identifying and pursuing any outstanding lines of enquiry.
RNZ News
13 hours ago
- RNZ News
Supervision of released high risk sex offender should be allowed to lapse High Court hears
The case was heard in the High Court in Wellington. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver The High Court in Wellington has heard Correction's supervision of a high risk sexual offender released earlier this year should be allowed to lapse. Local Democracy Reporting previously reported Nathaniel James Mahoney was sentenced to 10 years' jail in 2015 after he was found guilty on 10 charges of sexual and physical violence against four women. In one instance, Mahoney raped an 18-year-old autistic woman. He met her at a North Island comic book convention while dressed as Batman villain the Joker. The victim was dressed as the Joker's girlfriend Harley Quinn. In the High Court on Wednesday counsel for Mahoney, Charlotte Brook, argued that Corrections had erred in making a second Extended Supervision Order (ESO) application towards Mahoney that could nullify an existing one made ahead of his release. People under a supervision order are monitored by authorities, and might have conditions around where they can live and work, and who they interacted with. Brook said an implication of lodging a second order was it could allow for Mahoney to be in the community without supervision in the period between his release conditions expiring in August and an expected decision on the application due in November. She said interim supervision intended to monitor Mahoney in the lead-up to the decision could not be included in the second ESO as it had not been applied for while Mahoney was still incarcerated. "Corrections filed the second application intending to change the terms of the first one. They want a longer term. It's not Mr Mahoney's fault that the second one has been filed," Brook said. Brook cited previous decisions which characterised ESO's as "a second penalty and... an unjustified intrusion of a person's rights". She described the conditions of Mahoney's supervision orders as "intrusive" and argued the court should take a rights based approach in making its decision. "Mr Mahoney has been assessed as being very high risk but you can only take these preventative measures so far," Brook said. Justice Karen Grau observed that Mahoney's high risk of re-offending had increased following an incident relating to interactions with women during a prior employment placement initiative. Counsel for the Department of Corrections, Anselm Williams, argued there was nothing in legislation to stipulate the filing of a second ESO application would discontinue a prior application. "I don't accept ... that a court would decline the department's application when you have a person who is clearly a high risk and that risk has increased over the time that application is being considered," Williams said. Williams argued that interim supervision was not only necessary to protect the community but to enable Corrections to "provide rehabilitative options" for Mahoney. Justice Grau reserved her decision to be delivered ahead of Mahoney's release conditions expiring in early August. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
15 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Retail crime investigations in some regions halved under police directive
After the revelations Police Commissioner Richard Chambers canned the directive, which he called 'confusing and unhelpful' following significant backlash. Today, police released a series of documents to RNZ under the Official Information Act. Among the documents was a tally of shoplifting complaints under $500 during the period the directive was in place. It revealed there were 5454 complaints of shoplifting that were not assigned for investigation. In Auckland, only 73 of 927 complaints were assigned, in Canterbury 192 of 742, Wellington 131 of 694. Chambers earlier said he was unaware of the directive until RNZ revealed it. A staffer from the police minister's office emailed Chambers on the evening of May 26 about an RNZ article on the memo. 'It would be helpful if we could get some clarity as to what the policy actually is and clear up the messaging around this,' the email said. Chambers replied that he had liaised with Rachael Bambery, the executive director of service, victims and resolutions, and asked for a briefing to him and the minister's office to 'sort the messaging out'. 'For the record the messaging about not following up shoplifting complaints under a certain threshold is not correct and unhelpful. A range of information is taken into account when assessing complaints and this will inform what Police does. 'We have seen very effective approaches to retail crime in locations such as Tauranga and Gisborne which set the standard in terms of what is achievable, irrespective of threshold.' Shortly afterwards, another email from a parliamentary email asked to be looped into any communications being sent about the limits on investigating shoplifting. 'We can see there's a bit of traction tonight.' Chambers replied: 'I don't agree with the content, and we need to provide some reassurance and better messaging to retail sector'. The directive Also in the OIA is a document titled 'Service Group Continuous Improvement Project' dated January 2025. The document said to provide a more 'efficient and consistent service and to meet increasing demand', the FMC was moving from a regional model to a national model. 'This will allow the FMC workload to be triaged, prioritised and actioned by FMC staff across the country, rather than the FMC staff physically based within districts.' The process for assigning volume crime files was 'inefficient, with avoidable time delays and double handling'. Volume crime cases made up 62% of daily reports, of which 70% were theft, fraud and burglary. It was proposed that the FMC and 105-non emergency teams would assign volume crime cases based on the solvability only, with 'streamlined assignment rules' across the police districts. 'By standardising processes like assignment rules, FMC can move towards utilising its workforce more efficiently, freeing up capacity to do higher value and higher priority services.' The document included the proposed value thresholds. The value thresholds were: general theft $200, petrol drive-off $150, shoplifting $500, fraud (payWave, online, scam etc) $1000 and all other fraud $500. On March 17, Superintendent Blair MacDonald sent the email earlier revealed by RNZ that from March 26, the thresholds would be in place. The documents include an email from April 7 revealing the number of files being assigned for investigation since the rules were put in place 12 days earlier. In the email, the police adviser said Wellington had the biggest change, from an average of 60 per day to an average of 30. The numbers were being compared to baseline data over a 47-day period before the threshold was put into place. During the same period, Auckland City had a 26% decrease, Counties Manukau 21%, Eastern 38%, Central 42% and Canterbury 13%. Waikato had a 2.7% increase, which the staffer said was due to files being reassigned and appearing twice. 'Unable to investigate further' The OIA also includes a template that had been created to send to victims whose crimes did not meet the threshold. The email thanked the victims for reporting their crime but said they 'regret to advise, at this time, Police is unable to investigate further'. 'While we would like to resolve all matters to our victims' complete satisfaction, there are occasions where we cannot. 'Investigations are prioritised using a range of factors including legal timeframes and the likelihood of a successful conviction.' The email said police appreciated this may be 'frustrating and upsetting' to hear, 'particularly if you reported the incident recently or provided lines of inquiry'. 'We will however review your case if our ability to resolve this matter changes.' RNZ has approached police for comment. Police Minister Mark Mitchell told RNZ he was 'pleased that the Police Commissioner moved quickly to clarify Police's position, initiate a review of relevant cases, and reassure the retail sector and the public that Police will continue to enforce the law with their usual discretion'. Review under way Police earlier launched a review to establish how many cases of retail crime were filed while the controversial directive was in place. A police spokesperson earlier confirmed to RNZ the national value threshold applied to the prioritisation of lower-level theft and fraud offences was being removed. 'A review is being completed on any cases that may have been impacted by those thresholds to assess whether they should be assigned to districts for follow-up,' the spokesperson said. The review will be done by police's data quality team. 'Police want to reassure that cases will continue to be managed locally balancing demand, resources and priorities to ensure the best possible service to victims in those communities.' - RNZ
