Gloriavale leader Howard Temple pleads guilty to 12 charges of indecent assault
Photo:
The Press/Kai Schwoerer
The 85 year old leader of the remote West Coast Christian sect Gloriavale has pleaded guilty to 12 charges of indecent assault.
Howard Temple had earlier pleaded not guilty to 24 counts of sexual offending involving girls as young as nine.
But as the third day of his judge alone trial at Greymouth District Court began, Temple changed his plea on half of the charges, some of which are representative.
The other charges were dropped.
Temple assumed the mantle of spiritual leader, or Overseeing Shepherd, in 2018 following the death of the group's founder, Hopeful Christian.
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RNZ News
12 hours ago
- RNZ News
Government must ‘wake up' on Gloriavale, leaver says after leader Howard Temple convicted
Gloriavale's overseeing shepherd Howard Temple pleaded guilty to 12 charges on Wednesday. Photo: The Press/Kai Schwoerer The government needs to "wake up" and act to protect people at Gloriavale who were being indoctrinated and "broken", a former member has said. On Wednesday, Gloriavale's "Overseeing Shepherd" Howard Temple entered the dock at Greymouth District Court and pleaded guilty to an amended set of twelve charges, more than two years after first contesting two dozen sexual assault charges, and just days into what was expected to be a two week trial. The 85-year-old pleaded guilty to five charges of doing an indecent act on a young person, five of indecent assault and two of common assault. The other charges were dismissed. More than half of the charges were representative, meaning they represented multiple incidents that took place in similar circumstances. Temple was remanded on bail until 11 August when a date would be set for sentencing. Leavers were frustrated Temple had not admitted to his crimes earlier , saving the time spent going through the courts, and the testimony and cross examinations of five of the nine original complainants, Gloriavale Leavers Support Trust general manager Liz Gregory said. Many survivors felt the case underscored the hypocrisy of Temple's apology in January to those who had suffered historic sexual abuse, following a request from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, she said. Gloriavale leaver Virginia Courage said she harboured no illusion the guilty plea would have ramifications in the community, which is based at Lake Hapuri, in a remote valley about 60 kilometres from Greymouth. "Sadly Gloriavale lives under a completely different world view - they don't judge it through what we would consider normal societal views. They look at most of what has happened recently - with the convictions, the court cases, the focus on the school - as religious persecution. "They view it as religious persecution and it's not - it's prosecution for them not keeping the law." She doubted the outcome would have much cut through in the community, because it did not view sexual offending - especially on children or women - with the abhorrence that most of society does, because a sense of disconnection from the physical body was part of their religious teachings. Layered on top of that, Temple was generally well liked, but, as with everyone there, he had different personas, Courage said. "Howard is viewed as a very nice, gentle person - very respectful to women, very well mannered. And the truth is, he actually is, when he's Howard-the-person. But when he steps into his cult persona as the Overseeing Shepherd of Gloriavale, the person who's keeping the rules and the person who's making sure everyone's on the straight and narrow, he's the cult-Howard. And they are different. I was a different cult person in Gloriavale - I was an absolute rule keeper, I was an absolute loyalist. "They mess with your mind, they change who you are, they change your values, they change your moral code. They completely break the actual person that you are. And sadly, that's what's actually happened with so many people there." She said she did not know exactly how the community could be disestablished. "But surely if the group is under the control, is dominated, is being coerced by this group of men who allow the breaking of the law, surely we can close it?" Former Gloriavale member John Ready told Morning Report he was surprised Temple changed his plea. "I thought he would just fight it till the wheels fell off." But Ready did not believe the outcome of the trial would change much in Gloriavale. "Their world view is just not in line with reality. That's why we have to go to court to do any sort of negotiation with them because a sit down, face-to-face talk is just impossible." Outside court on Wednesday the mother of one of the complainants, who cannot be named, said she cried in the public gallery when Temple initially denied the charges. "I was thinking you are the shepherd, you are responsible for these people. You didn't show the care of a shepherd," she said. "It's a milestone that our voice has been heard. A leader of Gloriavale has acknowledged he has done wrong to our children. We do not want future generations of children suffering this and going through the same scenario." Hearing the guilty pleas was like having a heavy burden lifted, she said. "The girl's voices were heard, and in the girl's voices were their parents' voices as well." The amended charges cover a 20 year period, from 2002 to 2022, and relate to six complainants. Five gave evidence over the two days of the trial, describing a culture of fierce patriarchy, where women and girls were at risk of being deemed rebellious or worldly for anything from tying the belt on their uniform incorrectly, to allowing too much hair to be visible under their headscarves. The women described Temple taking advantage of the domestic chores they are required to do to touch, caress and grope them, such as during meal times when they served large, heavy jugs of cider or hot drinks to tables of 50 or more. Temple was also alleged to have frequented the kitchen to "hug" the young women from behind while they worked, kissing them on their necks, touching their breasts or making lewd remarks. The women said there was no way to refuse Temple, nor to report his actions to anyone in the context of the complete control Gloriavale's leaders wielded over members. Barrister Brian Henry said it was well past time for the government to intervene. "This is a criminal activity that's gone on for over 50 years. We now have both shepherds - and remember, the shepherd is regarded as the right hand of God - carrying out sex offences against little girls and it doesn't matter the extent of what's done, the damage to their heads, the damage to their life by these predators is huge. "They've organised this community and they've just had fun for 50 years - it's time it got stopped." In 2024, Henry filed proceedings against several government agencies - Oranga Tamariki, the Department of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Social Development and Labour Inspectorate - for allowing abuse to continue at Gloriavale. "The government can't just sit by and say, it'll sort out itself. It won't. They have to step in. They have to get the families and the kids out. "Temple should be registered as a sex offender, be supervised around women under the age of 16, or kept away from the community altogether," Henry said. The case may prompt others to come forward with allegations, but only if they had already left the strictly controlled group, he said. "If they don't leave, there's no way they're able to happily survive inside the community and give evidence against the leaders. It's just not that sort of environment. But they leave, they start to understand how badly they've been treated and how badly they've been conned into believing this is a utopian Christian way of life. "They've had no freedom of thought, no freedom of religion, no freedom at all." Earlier legal cases had helped build trust among leavers, with the success of three former Gloriavale men at the Employment Court in 2022 prompting female leavers to come forward with a similar case. The court found in their favour in 2023. Henry said Gloriavale's leaders would present the charges against Temple as "lies of the system" working against the community. But Temple's admission of guilt was different from the conviction of founder Hopeful Christian , who was imprisoned on indecent assault charges, which he denied. "This time he [Temple] has admitted it, he's pleaded guilty to charges which expressly state he had intent to sexually abuse these girls. "Howard Temple is in a different situation to the others who have been prosecuted in the last couple of years. He is someone who created the environment they're in. He is one of the original establishers of Gloriavale. He's been in the top job since the 1990s. He's a ringleader, he's actually one of the king sex offender crims in my book." Henry wanted to see government action to remove children and families from Gloriavale, and an end to government agencies "enabling" the community. "If the government goes in and tries to support and hold the community together, they've got to understand they're supporting criminals to carry on abusing girls and I just don't understand how social welfare and people like that can go in and run these programmes knowing full well what's happening. "They are sex offenders who've built a society cloaked in Christianity so they can perpetrate their crimes." Temple's predecessor as Overseeing Shepherd, Australian evangelist Neville Cooper (Hopeful Christian), founded the Springbank Christian Community near Rangiora in the late 1970s. The community relocated to the West Coast in the 1990s, where it still operates today, with an estimated 600 members. Temple has been bailed to a property adjoining the main Gloriavale site. Asked if that was a cause of concern for Oranga Tamariki, it noted bail conditions were managed by the police. Regional Commissioner Canterbury and Lower South Tamariki and Whānau Services Ana Su'a-Hawkins said the organisation was working collaboratively across government to "support the safety and well-being of children and young people at Gloriavale". Staff made regular visits to the community for "a range of activities" including risk assessments and implementing and monitoring safety plans, she said. Su'a-Hawkins said Oranga Tamariki was also engaging with the community "by attending child protection lead meetings and through discussions with leaders regarding children's and women's rights and education provisions". Police West Coast area commander Inspector Jaqueline Corner said it had been a long and intensive investigation, and she was pleased with the guilty pleas. She acknowledged the victims, and said the outcome was a direct result of their willingness and courage to speak up. Minister for Children Karen Chhour and Minister for the South Island James Meager both declined to comment. Oranga Tamariki did not respond before deadline. A Gloriavale spokesperson said he was unable to answer any questions on Temple. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Former vet charged with child poisoning at summer camp in Leicestershire
On Monday, Ruben was arrested in a pub carpark in Plungar, just over 1.6km from the lodge, where the village hall was used as a triage centre to assess all children present at the camp. Police received a report of children feeling unwell at the camp at Stathern Lodge on Sunday. Photo / SWNS Before he retired, Ruben spent more than 40 years as a vet after qualifying from the Royal (Dick) Vet School in Edinburgh in 1972 before completing a PhD in virology, studying Newcastle disease virus in chickens. He opened a small animal practice in the 1980s, which expanded to eight vets and four branches, but then changed direction and qualified as an early years primary school teacher. He then worked as a locum vet, and as the children and youth worker at his church. Ruben is thought to have ended his work as a locum vet last year when he dissolved his company, but had previously stood to join the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Council in 2012. He received 800 votes, short of the 1200 needed to be elected. According to a blog for his campaign, he had previously stood for the Conservatives at local elections in Edinburgh. The children were at the summer camp at the lodge, owned by the Braithwaite Gospel Trust, a Christian charity, which bought it in 2017, when they fell ill. Ruben is the secretary of a separate Christian charity, Stathern Children's Holiday Fund, which has run camps at the lodge in recent years and provides free holidays to underprivileged youngsters aged 8 to 12. Each camp is normally three days long and involves around 30 children, mostly from the Aspley and Clifton areas of Nottingham. The camps normally feature trips to leisure centres, have a theme each year and are run by volunteers who provide three meals a day. Activities are a mix of crafts and organised games, and children get free time to play table tennis, pool and games consoles or sports including football, basketball and badminton. 'It was pretty scary' Jonathan Jesson, one of the trustees of the Braithwaite Gospel Trust, said the lodge was being used at the weekend by a church group from Nottingham and that it was 'horrifying to understand that something like that could happen'. He said the trust allowed independent groups to use the lodge as a self-catering hostel accommodation and it was 'a place where people could come and enjoy the surroundings and have Christian input'. 'As far as I know, every group should bring their own leaders and have their own programme, and they deal with everything themselves, food and all the rest of it,' he said. Residents described the alleged poisonings as like something out of a 'horror story' and said they had rocked the 'sleepy village'. June Grant, 83, a former bookings secretary at Plungar village hall, said: 'You could hear the ambulances and police cars whizzing around the village. It was pretty scary, but such good news that the children are okay.' Another resident who lives near the hall said: 'It was pretty chaotic, with emergency workers running around everywhere. I saw a few children in tears as they walked into the hall. It's like every parent's worst nightmare, dropping your child at summer camp and then being told they might have been poisoned.' Assistant Chief Constable James Avery, of Leicestershire Police, speaks to the media after the incident. Photo / Alex Hannam Photography Leicestershire Police has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) 'due to the circumstances of the initial police response'. An IOPC spokesman said: 'We received a conduct referral on Tuesday from Leicestershire Police relating to their handling of concerns passed to them over the wellbeing of a group of children. Our assessment team has examined all available evidence and concluded the matter should be independently investigated by the IOPC. 'The investigation will look at whether there were any breaches of professional behaviour – namely a failure to carry out duties and responsibilities – that resulted in a delay in Leicestershire Police's response to what was later declared a critical incident.' Assistant Chief Constable James Avery previously said: 'Following initial assessment, I can confirm that eight children were taken to hospital as a precaution and have since been discharged. Officers have been in contact with the parents and guardians of those children taken to hospital.'
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- NZ Herald
Pensioner arrested after children ‘poisoned' at Christian summer camp
A pensioner has been arrested on suspicion of poisoning eight children at a Christian summer camp. Detectives are questioning the 76-year-old man after receiving a report of children feeling unwell at a summer camp in Stathern, Leicestershire, on Sunday. The children were enjoying a summer camp at Stathern Lodge, owned
