Gloriavale man admits sexual offending against eight girls
A Gloriavale man crept into girls’ bedrooms to touch them while they slept and grabbed them indecently while they worked in the community.
Fervent Ben-Canaan, 45, was on trial for 23 charges of sexual offending against 10 victims. He pleaded guilty on the third day of his jury trial after the charges were reduced to eight counts against eight victims.
He first appeared in court in April 2021 and his name and the Gloriavale Christian Community were suppressed until Friday.
The trial before Judge Raoul Neave was supposed to take three weeks and 29 witnesses were due to give evidence for the prosecution, including Gloriavale leaders Howard Temple, Peter Righteous and Samuel Valor.
In her opening address to the jury, Crown prosecutor Kerry White said the leaders would be asked about how several parents raised concerns about Ben-Canaan sexually assaulting their daughters. Instead of reporting it to police, the leaders called a meeting and Ben-Canaan was sent away to another community-owned property for a few weeks as punishment.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent assault of a girl aged between 12 and 16, three charges of doing an indecent act on a young person under 16, three charges of indecent assault and one of doing an indecent act on a girl under the age of 12.
White said the complainants were all members of Gloriavale and the offending happened between 2004 and 2017 when they were aged between 11 and 18 and Ben-Canaan was aged between 25 and 38.
She said the communal living areas gave him the opportunity to offend.
He would come up behind the girls while they were working in the kitchen, laundry and dining room and touch them indecently. He laughed when one girl told him to stop.
He would also go into the girls’ bedrooms – on several occasions through a window – to touch them while they were asleep.
One girl said when she was 11, she and her friend ran when they saw Ben-Canaan walking in the community at night because they were so frightened of being touched and grabbed by him. She ran into a storeroom where Ben-Canaan followed her and began tickling her.
“He was laughing and she was staying stop it,” White said.
Another girl described being grabbed from behind while vacuuming when she was 17. She fell over while trying to escape and Ben-Canaan sat on her and groped her.
One of the girls told her parents about the offending and a meeting was called by the senior male leaders of Gloriavale, including late founder Hopeful Christian and current overseeing shepherd Howard Temple, White said.
“The defendant was also present and apologised. Despite this meeting and apology, the touching did not stop.”
In her opening address to the jury, White said Ben-Canaan made two statements to police in which he admitted having a sexual interest in a 13-year-old. He admitted having sexual activity with another girl for a few years, but believed she was older than 15.
He told them he was sexually motivated when touching some of the girls while they were asleep and would not have tried it if they were awake.
He denied touching two of the girls, but admitted giving one of them a hug and talking to her in a dark room.
Ben-Canaan was remanded in custody for sentencing in February.
His lawyer, Marcus Zintl, unsuccessfully applied for bail, saying Ben-Canaan hoped to take a holiday before his sentencing.
Judge Neave said the offending spanned a long period of time and involved a significant breach of trust. He did extend the name suppression order by almost three weeks to allow Ben-Canaan to tell his family.