a day ago
Gloriavale leader Howard Temple 'did not grope', lawyer says
Gloriavale leader Howard Temple.
Photo:
The Press/Kai Schwoerer
The Greymouth District Court will hear more evidence from women accusing
Gloriavale leader Howard Temple
of sexual offending today, as the judge alone trial continues.
Temple is
facing 24 charges
of indecent assault and doing an indecent act to nine women who ranged in age from nine to 20 years old when the offending took place, between 1997 and 2022.
The crown said the crimes occurred in the kitchen, dining hall and a men's bathroom at the commune, which is located about 60 kilometres from Greymouth, at Lake Haupiri.
The crown alleges the defendant would prey on the young women, stroking their legs, grabbing them around the waist or by their dresses as they served food, or while working in the kitchen, grabbing them from behind, kissing them on the neck or groping them.
Temple, 85, has pleaded not guilty. He acknowledges kissing and hugging some of the complainants, but denies any of it was indecent.
His lawyer, Michael Vesty, said Temple - and other leaders - would merely acknowledge the young women's work with an "affectionate hug".
He describe the gestures as demonstrations of "gratitude and support that were acceptable conduct in the day to day life of the community", and said Temple "did not grope, did not grab, did not linger".
On Monday, the court heard from one of the nine complainants.
The woman, who has name suppression, told the court of working in the kitchen and dining hall from the time she was a primary school aged child.
A videotaped police interview from 2015 was played to the court before the woman took the stand and told of being touched, grabbed, groped and harassed by Temple and other men at Gloriavale.
She talked of strategies women and girls used to try to avoid the worst of the harassment, or avoid being vulnerable to assault.
The complainant, who was born at Gloriavale and left when she was in her late 20s, described a culture of fear and victim blaming.
During her time there, "if any issues happened, say between a married man and a single woman, or two single people even, the women were always at fault".
"The man's wife was at fault because she obviously wasn't doing the right thing to keep her husbands eyes only on her, and the girl who had been abused was at fault because she had also tempting him."
Anything from showing too much hair under their headscarf to wearing ankle socks to tying their belts incorrectly was considered rebellious or "worldly", and an attempt to attract men's attention.
Telling anyone could have meant being shamed, isolated, or prevented from marrying, and there was no one to confide in, because "it's everybody's job to dob everybody else in".
During cross examination, Vesty indicated he will call a number of witnesses to attest the woman had a friendly and warm relationship with Temple, and would sometimes instigate hugs herself, which she denied.
The defence spent some time dissecting letters Temple had sent the then-teenager while he was in
India setting up another community
, often addressing her as his favourite girlfriend.
The woman said the letters were inappropriate in their language and tone, coming from the group's leader to a teenager.
But Temple's lawyer's Michael Vesty said the letters show genuine pastoral concern.
The crown intends to call some of the other complainants as well as two of the police officers involved in the case.
The trial is set down for two weeks.
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