Gloriavale leader Howard Temple pleads guilty to indecency charges
Photo:
The Press/Kai Schwoerer
The 85-year-old leader of the remote West Coast Christian sect Gloriavale has pleaded guilty to 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 charges, including representative charges, include five indecent assaults, five indecent acts and two common assault charges.
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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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. 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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." 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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. 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