Scale of harmful sexual behaviour at Gloriavale revealed as man escapes conviction
Court documents have revealed more than 60 young people have been involved in harmful sexual behaviour at the Gloriavale Christian Community, as a former member avoided conviction in court.
A police inquiry into allegations of child sexual abuse at the West Coast community – called Operation Minneapolis – has been under way since July 2020.
Police, supported by Oranga Tamariki staff, have been at Gloriavale interviewing community members.
A 21-year-old, who was first charged in September, pleaded guilty to three charges of doing an indecent act on boys aged between 12 and 16, and appeared at the District Court in Christchurch on Friday.
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The charges are representative, meaning multiple offences of the same type have been committed in similar circumstances over a period of time.
Judge Mark Callaghan granted the man, who has permanent name suppression, a discharge without conviction on all charges.
Callaghan said from what he had seen, there was very little risk of reoffending, and the man had distanced himself from the Gloriavale environment.
“At the time you committed these offences, they were normalised in the upbringing you had.”
According to the man’s comments in the summary of facts, he had been unable to move on from sexual offending after he had been victim of it himself.
He said it “lit a flame” within him, and he wanted to carry on the behaviour.
Callaghan said due to the man’s young age when the acts took place, 15 for the first two victims, and 18 for the third, he considered the gravity of the offending to be low.
“[With a] conviction for indecency, that stigma will be with you for the rest of your life.”
Court documents revealed Operation Minneapolis had two screening phases – where young boys between the ages of 7 and 16 were spoken to.
During this phase more than 60 people were identified as having been involved in harmful sexual behaviour as either children, young people, or young adults.
The investigation showed offending that spanned years, and identified historical boy-boy offending to have occurred in earlier generations as well.
Details of offending of the man sentenced on Friday can now also be revealed.
Judge Callaghan earlier suppressed his name and background, but allowed media to report that the offending happened at Gloriavale.
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.
The older boy sometimes told his victim he was going to “black him out,” which involved putting him in a choke-hold.
The younger boy reported it was not applied forcefully, but he would pretend to fall asleep, before sexual acts were performed. He would then be woken, and instructed to “black him out too”.
The victim estimated there were between 10 and 15 incidents, ending when he was 13.
On one occasion, a 14-year-old boy accompanied the others into the crawl space. He was considered the second victim.
When he was 18, the man and another boy, 14, were working together in a shed used to make props for Gloriavale’s bi-annual concerts.
The two also began meeting up in secluded areas, including under the concert stage in the main building, before performing sexual acts on one another. This also happened between 10 and 15 times.
Several former Gloriavale residents are currently facing criminal charges in relation to unrelated incidents.
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.
A third 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.