Gloriavale teen faces sex abuse allegations

Police have launched an inquiry into new allegations of child sexual abuse at the isolated Gloriavale Christian Community.

A former member, who spoke on condition of anonymity but who is familiar with the allegations, said a complaint was laid with police on Monday by a family member of a young boy.

The allegations were of sexual offending by a teenage male inside the community, involving multiple boys.

Police, supported by Oranga Tamariki staff, have been at Gloriavale this week. The former member understood up to six boys had been interviewed so far.

The religious community near Greymouth on the West Coast has been the subject of investigations in recent years by police, Oranga Tamariki and the Charities Commission. A former senior member, a community teacher and Gloriavale founder Hopeful Christian have all been convicted of sexual offending.

Gloriavale Leavers’ Trust spokeswoman Liz Gregory said she understood police and Oranga Tamariki were investigating serious allegations involving multiple complainants.

The former member said people in the community had been talking about the allegations for at least eight months.

‘‘The leaders knew about it and had not gone to police,’’ he said. ‘‘As soon as [leader] Howard [Temple] found out a complaint was made to police he got in his car and drove to Greymouth to tell the police about it. At the same time as he was driving there, police were driving to Gloriavale,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s part of the Gloriavale belief system that everything is dealt with inside and the police are not involved. There has been a lot of pressure in recent years to change that and the leaders have made some token gestures, but I know from living there that they don’t really understand what a crime is.

‘‘I had heard about things like this happening when I was growing up and would never have considered going to the police.’’