Gloriavale leader on tight rein

| Greymouth Star |

Gloriavale Christian Community’s elderly spiritual leader Howard Temple, who is facing over 20 historic charges of sexual off ending, will be briefly allowed back at the community’s Lake Brunner satellite site this Sunday.

An application to vary the 83-year-old’s bail conditions was filed with Judge Stephen O’Driscoll in the Greymouth District Court yesterday.

Temple’s lawyer Michael Vesty said the application had been “whittled down’’ by the Crown to two days a week, four hours a day.

The Crown said it could accommodate a one-off visit to the community this weekend under strict supervision. However, it sought a short delay in formalising the variation until it had gone before the detective in charge of Gloriavale cases.

The historic charges, in which Temple is accused of assaulting 10 girls over more than 20 years, follow a three-year police investigation.

He appeared in the Greymouth District Court in August, and was remanded on bail. Temple has asked for a trial by jury.