Gloriavale sex offender says some of it consensual
A jury has heard disturbing evidence from a self-confessed child sex offender about how he touched young girls, but had consensual “affairs” with others.
Jonathan Benjamin, 58, is facing a jury trial in the Greymouth District Court for offending that allegedly happened in the Gloriavale Christian community from 1989 to 2017 at Haupiri and Springbank, the cult’s original site at Springbank, near Christchurch.
He has pleaded not guilty to two charges of sexual violation by rape, four charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, four charges of indecent assault on a girl under 12, indecent assault on a young person under 16, four charges of indecent assault on a girl 12 to 16 and two charges of indecent assault.
Benjamin previously pleaded guilty to 12 charges of indecent assault of children and unlawful sexual connection.
Judge Mark Callaghan dismissed four charges against Benjamin after the Crown concluded its case on Friday. He said there was insufficient evidence on two rape charges, and for two sexual violation charges the evidence did not support the charges under the law at the time of the allegations between 1986 and 1989.
Yesterday he took the stand in his defence, describing in detail some of his offending against girls as young as 6.
Benjamin said he was born in Australia and moved to Rangiora in 1976 at the age of 10 to join the church founded by Hopeful Christian.
He said he left the community the day after his arrest in April 2021 and has since realised that Gloriavlae was a cult with extreme and fundamentalist views. He told the court he had a consensual “extramarital affair” with one of the complainants after she turned 16. He said the pair had developed a friendship when they worked together and regularly were physically affectionate.
He said he did go into her room to touch her, and had sex with her on several occasions. “As far as I remember she seemed reasonably pleased to see me. She wasn't frightened at all ... I must emphasis there was no fear in her voice,” he said.
They gave each other “lovely, caring attention”, he told the court, until she eventually ended the relationship, but they remained friends until he left the community.
He recalled a meeting with two leaders and some girls he admitted to offending against, at which he apologised. “I was repentant. They didn’t force me to, they asked if I wanted to say anything to the girls. I told the girls how very sorry I was for everything I’d ever done to them. It was very wrong.”
He said the leaders asked him to go to a hut to spend time praying and fasting, which he gladly did. He said someone came to get him and bring him back to the community after nine days.
After his arrest, he told police everything he could remember about his offending.
He admitted going into Virginia Courage’s room once and indecently touching her, but denied sexually violating her. Courage has waived her right to name suppression.
He said he was a “young man already consumed with wrong desires and feelings”.
But when he realised she did not want him to touch her, he stopped and felt terrible afterwards, he said. He accepted indecently touching a young girl at a movie night but denied sexually violating her.
Benjamin said another sexual encounter with a girl when she was 17 was consensual after she invited him into her bed. “To me it was very sinful, but we kept it hidden ... I knew it was sinful but I knew it was consensual – I knew she was just as wrong as me.”
He said Hopeful Christian always taught that sex outside marriage was a sin, and men were blamed just as much as women.
“But he taught that women had a God-given ability; they could more easily say ‘no’ to a man. I’m not saying this is right or wrong. Women could more easily resist a man than a man could resist his own temptation. That was taught publicly,” he said.
Benjamin admitted indecently touching a fifth complainant at a movie night when she was 6, but denied indecently tickling her multiple times and denied further charges of indecently assaulting her until she was 14. He said he did tickle her but she loved it and it was a game.
The case continues.