Police letter to Gloriavale reveals places where harmful sexual behaviour was rife
Wednesday, 9 March 2022
A police letter to the Gloriavale Christian Community reveals a list of places where harmful sexual behaviour was taking place – including inside a dinosaur in the dining room.
A police inquiry into allegations of child sexual abuse at the West Coast community – called Operation Minneapolis – has concluded after being under way since July 2020.
The investigation brought to light offending that involved 61 people, including harmful sexual behaviour across multiple generations.
The email, seen by Stuff, was sent by a detective senior sergeant at the beginning of the investigation on July 28, 2020, to the community's overseeing shepherd Howard Temple.
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It was later passed on to all parents in the community.
It says Temple requested a breakdown of the places identified as where harmful sexualised behaviour between young boys had occurred.
“No doubt this is not an exhaustive list and we will update you regularly with any further identified,” the detective said.
“I trust this will be disseminated amongst adults that can assist with vigilance in and around these places, and may assist you in tweaking some of the current jobs/tasks that young boys have in these areas or at least ensure there is adult supervision.”
The list includes an old car down by the creek, the hen house, underneath the stage in the main area, all communal toilets and bathrooms, the piggery and value protein piggery office, the old moss shed, Bellevue farm, Waitaki Downs Station, meal plant shed, a bike shed, a sideway beside the engineering workshop and inside the dinosaur in the dining room.
The dinosaur is understood to have been a prop in one of the community's biennial concerts it puts on for the public. A blog by a member of the public who attended the concert in 2016 says the show in the dining hall contained moving dinosaurs.
The list contains several workplaces, subject to a recent Employment Court hearing, which is looking into allegations young boys were made to work in the community’s commercial businesses, farms and gardens from the age of 6.
Several former members have left the community out of fear for their children and the way the community mishandled sexual abuse allegations – including victim blaming, and giving the offender three or more chances before reporting them to police.
Former member Virginia Courage said she knew offending was going on for more than 20 years and she and her husband approached the leaders with their concerns a year-and-a-half before they finally left.
“There were more people coming out and saying this had happened and you haven't done anything.
”It was pretty heartbreaking… It was a big reason why we left. It wasn't just about the abuse, but it was that you couldn't get the leaders to be honest about it and get anything done,” she said.
The court heard sexual offending was so prevalent in the community that it has its own Stop office. Stop provides services for adolescents and adults who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour and for children with concerning sexual behaviours.
Gloriavale “house mother” Charity Christian said at the Employment Court hearing, because the behaviour came to light all at once it made sense for the community members to have counselling with Stop onsite to save them “tripping into town all the time”.
“We were so ashamed, or like disgusted, with finding out that these things had happened…You don't know what you don't know and when you do know you should do the Christian thing and I believe that everyone has the heart to clear it out so that it never happens again,” she said.
Five people have been charged in Operation Minneapolis – two adults and three youths.
Inspector Jacqui Corner, West Coast Area Commander said the police were currently engaged in a phase of identifying and speaking with all former members of the Gloriavale community in order to fully assess experiences of victimisation and hold people to account.
“The ongoing welfare of everyone in the community is police's top priority, and police, along with other agencies and Gloriavale Christian Community themselves, continue to work together to ensure this,” she said.
Stuff previously reported a 21-year-old was discharged without conviction and given name suppression in September to three charges of doing an indecent act on boys aged between 12 and 16.
Judge Mark Callaghan said the behaviour was learned and normalised in Gloriavale and the man had been a victim of sexual offending himself.
When the man was aged 15, and his first victim 12, the pair had been helping tradesmen working on a new school building.
They began meeting up in spots around the Gloriavale community, including a crawl space above an electrical room in the new building, where the pair took turns performing sex acts on each other.
A former Gloriavale resident pleaded guilty in August to 11 charges of sexual offending against children, at least one of whom was under the age of 12, but denied another 27 charges.
Another former Gloriavale resident has denied sexually abusing multiple children in the community as a youth.
The man, who has interim name suppression, pleaded not guilty to seven counts of unlawful sexual connection, four of indecent assault, and two of doing an indecent act against children aged 14 and under in the Timaru District Court in March.
The man was aged between 12 and 15, and living at Gloriavale, when the offending allegedly occurred.