Gloriavale focus of abuse report
| Greymouth Star | Laura Mills |
The Abuse in Care Royal Commission recommendations include steps that would prevent someone like Gloriavale founder Hopeful Christian
— who returned to lead the community after being jailed for sex offending
— from ever happening again.
The inquiry’s 3000-page final report, released yesterday, estimated 200,000 people have been abused in State and faithbased care since 1950.
The Prime Minister has confirmed the recommendations will be considered in the coming months, and a formal apology will be made in November.
The inquiry heard of abuse and neglect occurring within the Gloriavale Christian Community at Lake Haupiri.
The final report says much of the abuse stemmed from the authoritarian control leadership, “which cooccurred with spiritual abuse”.
Survivors spoke about the psychological and spiritual abuse community leaders perpetrated, including through the use of shame, manipulation, humiliation and isolation; the economic and educational neglect suffered; and the normalised and pervasive physical and sexual abuse.
The exclusive nature of Gloriavale also led to economic abuse and educational neglect, the report says.
Howard Temple, the current Overseeing Shepherd at Gloriavale, acknowledged to the commission that the Gloriavale Doctrine of Unity made it difficult for members to raise concerns because if they were in conflict with a person, they could not be in unity with that person.
The report said the late Hopeful Christian (formerly Neville Cooper), the original Overseeing Shepherd at Gloriavale, was convicted and jailed in 1995 for sexual offending, including against young people aged between 12 and 17yrs, within the Gloriavale Community. He returned to the post upon his release.
Current leader Mr Temple is defending charges of indecently assaulting 10 girls, offending that began in 1998.
Rosanna Overcomer told the inquiry: “What was not dealt with appropriately went on to become the culture I was raised in. When people in positions of power have no accountability, they create a path of hurt and destruction. Systems left unchecked don’t improve, they deteriorate. This is what has happened at Gloriavale.”
She was sexually abused in 2000 or 2001 when she was 14 years old by another member of the community.
She said: “We want lasting change for our families still inside. We want a safe place for our nieces and nephews to grow up in. We want them to have the same liberties, opportunities, education and care any New Zealander deserves. We need to know there will be significant changes to the systems and leadership that brought us here today.”
Gloriavale did not introduce a safeguarding policy until 2019.
The commission says when a complaint is upheld, the leader should be permanently removed.
Faith-base care recommendations include:
Faith-based entities will be subject to the national care safety regulatory system. This means they will need to comply with statutory requirements under the Care Safety Act (Recommendation 41), including complying with national care standards, accreditation, vetting and training.
Faith-based leaders should get comprehensive training both prior to and during their appointment, that are survivor-centric and trauma-informed and that these leaders are consistently held to account to an appropriate authority or body specifically in relation to identifying, preventing and responding to abuse and neglect in care cultural awareness, and addressing prejudice and all forms of discrimination.
All faith-based entities should ensure that religious leaders are accountable to an appropriate authority or body, such as a board of management or council, for the decisions they make with respect to preventing and responding to abuse and neglect in care.
Each faith-based entity should have a policy relating to the management of actual or perceived conflicts of interest that may arise in relation to allegations of abuse and neglect in care. The policy should cover all individuals who have a role in responding to complaints of abuse and neglect in care.
* All faith-based entities should revise their policies to reduce high barriers to disclosure including through flexibility for disclosures of abuse.
All faith-based entities’ complaint handling policies should require that, upon receiving a complaint of abuse and neglect in care, an initial risk assessment is conducted to identify and minimise any risks to children, young people and adults in care.
All faith-based entities’ complaint handling policies should require that, if a complaint of abuse and neglect in care against a person in religious ministry is credible, and there is a risk that person may come into contact with children in the course of their ministry, the person be stood down from ministry while the complaint is investigated.
Any person in religious ministry who is the subject of a complaint of abuse and neglect in care which is substantiated on the balance of probabilities, applied flexibly according to the seriousness of the allegation in accordance with the principles set out by the courts in applicable case law, or who is convicted of an offence relating to abuse and neglect in care, should be permanently removed from ministry.
Members of the church should be notified of the persons permanent removal from ministry. Faith-based entities should also take all necessary steps to effectively prohibit the person from in any way holding himself or herself out as being a person with religious authority.