‘No justice’: Fury as ex-Gloriavale leader Howard Temple spared jail for touching girls

| The Press | Brett Kerr-Laurie and Joanne Naish |

A former Gloriavale member says the justice system is failing victims of sexual assault after former leader Howard’s Temple prison sentence for inappropriately touching girls over two decades in the religious community was quashed.

Temple’s sentence has been drastically reduced by a High Court judge, who decided it was “excessive”.

Instead, he will serve 11 months’ home detention – and his name will be removed from the child sex offenders’ register. The judge ruled, for reasons including his age and “cognitive impairment”, that prison would be too harsh.

Temple last year pleaded guilty to 12 amended charges related to inappropriately touching and rubbing girls and young women at Gloriavale between 2002 and 2022.

However, he immediately appealed a two-year, two-month prison sentence delivered on December 12 – and has been on bail since.

Former Gloriavale member Pearl Valor said she was close friends with Temple’s victims.

“I have seen the harm and the hurt he has caused. They are really affected by this and will live with this their whole lives, and they have had no justice,” she said.

The sentence was sending a message to perpetrators that they could do what they wanted without accountability, she said.

“I think that the justice system is failing victims and survivors and doing exactly what it did for Neville Cooper in the 90s; protecting the powerful and the wealthy. At this point it’s not a mistake. They know what they’re doing and it’s not good enough.”

Cooper, or Hopeful Christian, who founded the community in 1969, was found guilty of indecent assault in the 1990s – the details of which were only made public three years ago – and spent just under two years behind bars.

Christian chose Temple as his successor before his death in 2018.

Through his lawyer Temple, 85, argued part of the sentence was “more than stern”, and his remorse, age, health and “onerous” bail conditions were under-appreciated.

High Court Justice Owen Paulsen, in a decision just released, quashed the 26-month jail term.

The judge considered that aspects of Temple’s sentence – for the “touching of bottoms” and for common assaults – were “excessive”, and reduced those.

But he did not believe a further discount was warranted for his bail or remorse, noting Temple’s “religious convictions appear to be a barrier to him developing greater insight into his offending”.

Justice Paulsen’s decision says a 5% reduction for remorse was sufficient because Temple told a psychologist that pleading guilty was “the biggest mistake I ever made”, and he was not given enough time to consider the decision.

The psychologist found Temple was suffering from mild cognitive impairment and posed a negligible future risk to others both inside and outside of the Gloriavale community.

The adjustments resulted in a 22-month jail sentence, which Justice Paulsen then converted to 11 months of home detention.

He said this would still be a significant sentence for Temple given his age, continued separation from the community and low risk of re-offending.

“Finally, his advanced age and cognitive impairment mean imprisonment would be disproportionately severe, and he would be especially vulnerable in a custodial environment,” the judge said.

He also removed Temple’s name from the Child Sex Offender Register.

Temple has been living outside Gloriavale while on bail, but was allowed to attend the community’s Lake Brunner site each Wednesday and Sunday for a few hours, accompanied by one of four named persons.

In Temple’s sentencing in December, the District Court heard he repeatedly indecently touched girls and young women’s bottoms and legs.

He told them he loved them and called one of them his “favourite girlfriend”.

Temple, at one point a principal of an early childhood centre in the community, also admitted touching a young woman’s breast, kissing another’s neck and rubbing a girl’s body.

One complainant in the case said Temple held a place of “nearly God” in Gloriavale and she felt he took advantage of his position to fulfil his sexual desires.

Some victims also disclosed that his offending had affected their faith and made it difficult for them to trust men in positions of power or church groups.

Temple was an American mechanical engineer formerly called Howard Smitherman before joining Gloriavale in the 1970s.