Gloriavale father loses custody case

A mother has won full custody of her children after their father secretly took them to live in Gloriavale, an isolated West Coast community described as ‘‘psychologically abusive’’ by a judge.

Family Court Judge Sarah Lindsay ruled the mother, who lives in Australia, was the best person to care for the four girls aged 15, 12, 7 and 5.

The decision says the parents were Kiwis who lived in Australia. After the parents broke up, the father took the three older girls to New Zealand in 2016, against the mother’s wishes.

Soon after joining Gloriavale, the oldest girl asked to be returned to her mother. The father refused but she went to live with her grandmother in New Zealand while awaiting the outcome of the custody case. The mother argued that the girls would be isolated from their Ma¯ ori culture and wha¯nau if they remained at the Christian community near Greymouth.

‘‘She also fears they will not have the same opportunity to learn and grow as individual young women and achieve all they possibly can in life.

‘‘[She] is opposed to her daughters marrying young and at the direction of the church elders,’’ the judge said.

The father worried about their souls being at risk if they left Gloriavale. He told the court the mother’s lifestyle was ‘‘morally wrong and a risk to the children’s spiritual wellbeing’’.

The judge said the mother only found out they were in Gloriavale through a lawyer in March 2018.

Both parents made allegations against each other of physical abuse of the girls who were made wards of the court in February 2019.

The father claimed that while the children lived in Australia, the mother physically abused two of the girls by disciplining them with a wooden spoon.

The mother told the court she had smacked the children but it was not excessive force. She had sought counselling and had a new stable loving relationship.

The father also admitted in court that he was physically violent towards the children by beating them with a belt and striking them on the face and bottom while in Gloriavale.

The judge said the wider Gloriavale community was psychologically abusive to the girls by excluding them from school and shunning them.

The father’s failure to intervene was ‘‘wrong and grossly unfair’’, she said. He prevented one of the girls from attending a contact meeting with her mother and evaded police when a warrant was issued.

His decisions about his children ‘‘had far-reaching and troubling effects’’, Judge Lindsay said.

The father was assessed as having paranoia, vulnerable to low mood and a tendency for ‘‘extreme behaviour’’. It was ruled he posed a high level of risk to his children.

‘‘The risk is to the children’s physical and psychological safety. If [he] promoted an arranged marriage between his young daughters (in secret and without their mother’s support) this would also pose a question as to their sexual safety,’’ the judge ruled.

She said there was no evidence of any ongoing concern about the mother’s physical discipline of the children.

The judge said the wider Gloriavale community was psychologically abusive to the girls by excluding them from school and shunning them.