Former Brethren jailed for sex crimes

An elderly former Exclusive Brethren member has been jailed for 2½ years for sexual crimes against four young girls and will pay them a total of $20,000 in reparations.

Clive Allen Petrie, 74, of Enner Glynn, was sentenced in the Nelson District Court this morning.

He had been found guilty by a Nelson jury in September of nine charges of indecently assaulting girls and one charge of inducing a girl under 12 to do an indecent act on him.

Petrie had admitted one charge of indecently assaulting a girl under 12 on the first day of his trial.

The four girls involved were aged five to nine when the offending happened, between the 1950s and 1980s.

In sending Petrie to prison, Judge Tony Zohrab said he appreciated that it would be a difficult sentence but said that, in some ways, he saw it as a merciful sentence, in contrast to the lack of mercy Petrie had shown his victims by offending against them and then making them go through the court process.

Petrie was ordered to pay $20,000 reparation, which was an amount he had offered to pay. It was to be divided equally between the women.

Judge Zohrab said Petrie had lived a lot of his life without being called to account for the offending, and the impact on at least three of the victims had been significant.

Two of the victim-impact statements were read to the court.

In those, both women said the effects of Petrie's offending against them had been long lasting and traumatic. One woman said she had to carry the secret of the offending as she knew she could not raise it within the Exclusive Brethren church because noone would believe her.

She said she did not blame Petrie as much as she blamed the Exclusive Brethren for his offending.Both women said the offending had affected their self-esteem.

Petrie's lawyer, Hamish Riddoch, said Petrie had been brought up within the Exclusive Brethren church and as a result he was "sheltered, naive and immature".

Since the charges had been laid he had been withdrawn from the church and had lost its support. He stood to lose his house to pay the reparations.

Petrie apologised through Mr Riddoch to the four victims.

Crown prosecutor Glen Marshall said aggravating factors were the extended period of the offending and that a lot of it was premeditated against vulnerable girls.

The court had previously heard the offending against three of the victims happened in the 1950s and early 1960s – at a Nelson home for one of the women, and at a farm in the Motueka area for the other two, who were sisters. Those women are now in their 50s and 60s.

All three women said Petrie would get them alone and indecently touch them.

Petrie indecently assaulted the fourth victim, now 31, at his house in the 1980s.

- © Fairfax NZ News