Gloriavale: Details of crimes committed by founder Hopeful Christian made public for first time

By Jean Edwards | Radio NZ |

Gloriavale founder Hopeful Christian was jailed for cruel and bizarre sexual offending under the guise of education or preparation for marriage, court documents show.

Full details of Christian’s crimes have publicly emerged for the first time, after being tendered in an Employment Court case brought by six former Gloriavale women.

Sentencing remarks describe how Hopeful Christian left a 19-year-old woman in pain and bleeding after forcefully inserting a wooden object inside her.

He was initially sentenced to six years in prison in the Christchurch District Court in September 1994, after being found guilty by a jury of 10 counts of indecent assault between 1980 and 1984 against five young complainants.

Christian was aged between 53 and 57 at the time of the offending.

Following an appeal and retrial, Christian – formerly known as Neville Cooper – was sentenced to five years in prison in December 1995, on three charges of indecent assault for inserting the object inside the 19-year-old over three successive days.

Sentencing remarks by Judge Graeme Noble in 1994 detail offending against young people aged between 12 and 17, including massaging or caressing the naked breasts and genitalia of one complainant on 10 to 20 occasions.

Further reading: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/484395/gloriavale-details-of-crimes-committed-by-founder-hopeful-christian-made-public-for-first-time