Teacher jailed for sex offences

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Offending over 40 years

A former Gloriavale school teacher has been sentenced to four years in prison for sexual offending against 15 girls — five years after he was first convicted of sexually abusing a nine-year-old.

In May, Just Standfast pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection against two girls aged seven and 14ys, 10 charges of indecent assault on girls under the age of 12, and six indecent assaults against girls aged between 12 and 16yrs.

The 74-year-old also admitted five charges of assault with blunt weapons against five boys and a man.

In total there were 21 victims and his offending spanned more than four decades. He lost a bid for name suppression in May but filed an appeal. That appeal was abandoned before his sentencing today.

One of Standfast’s victims, Gloriavale leaver Virginia Courage, now aged 44, had asked for her name suppression to be lifted. All other victims of sexual offending have automatic name suppression.

A victim impact statement read on Ms Courage’s behalf by Crown prosecutor Kerry White said Standfast had been her teacher at Gloriavale’s original community at Cust, in Canterbury, when she began her schooling years.

Standfast had openly and inappropriately touched her and other females in the classroom.

‘’You groomed me and other female students. You befriended us and gained our trust. Your brazen behaviour was never hidden.’’

Standfast later went on to teach at Gloriavale School at Lake Haupiri, on the West Coast, where sexual offending occurred as well as violent offending against boys that the court heard was regarded as discipline.

Ms Courage said she had witnessed Standfast’s “anger and unchecked rage’’ over many years in his schooling.

“Why were you so angry, why were you unchecked? How could you remain a teacher?’’

He had been able to continue his behaviour in Gloriavale for many years, never being asked to leave, and never being reported to the authorities.

Now aged in his 70s, Standfast had left a “terrible legacy’’.

“You have hurt children, broken trust and left lasting damage to so many people. What a terrible .. legacy.’’

Standfast was arrested by West Coast police CIB in February. According to the summary of facts, Standfast was known as Harvey Weston Bishop before he joined the Christian Community, when it was based at Cust. That evolved into Gloriavale, which now had an estimated population of 600.

In late 2020 police commenced a large-scale criminal investigation ‘Operation Minneapolis’ in relation to Gloriavale. Some years ago Standfast was involved in a motorcycle accident which resulted in the amputation of his right leg above the knee and significant injury to his right arm at the elbow. Subsequently he used prosthetic limbs and braces.

Standtrue was directly engaged as a classroom teacher of young and adolescent children, both at Springbank (Cust) and Gloriavale (Lake Haupiri) for many years.

Further to his role as a teacher he directly supervised children within the dedicated garden area in Gloriavale, cultivating vegetables. Up until late 2023 he was still an active member of the Gloriavale community, living on site with his family which now extends to grandchildren.

The sexual offending took place at both Cust and Gloriavale between 1983 and 2001. There were 15 victims, the youngest of which was five at the time; Standtrue was 33.

The assault with weapon charges occurred as late as 2023 and involved lining up boys as young as eight and striking them with various garden instruments to ‘’discipline’’ them.

Between the late 1980s and early 2000s he was in direct contact with numerous juvenile females within the Gloriavale Christian Community. Over this time period he intentionally committed various sexual acts upon many juvenile females, police said.

The offending took place n the classroom while girls sat on his knee and he taught them the recorder, or marked their work. Some also happened at Standfast’s home.

Judge Quentin Hix said Standfast held a position of trust in the community with children as a teacher, to the point some of his victims had been allowed to stay overnight at his house.

Two sexual violation charges were highlighted at the more serious end of Standfast’s offending. They involved contact with two unnamed victims where on both instances their genitalia were exposed, which Standfast ‘’briefly kissed’’.

Standfast’s lawyer Marcus Zintl said he had apologised to a majority of the victims of his sexual offending in person and was genuinely remoseful.

His physical disabilities would make a prison sentence ‘’unduly harsh’’.

Prosecutor Ms White said the Crown accepted Standfast’s age and health should be considered in sentencing. However, prison authorities had been spoken to and they could accommodate his health issues.

Judge Hix began with a starting point of 10.5 years total for all offending, the bulk of which was seven years for the sexual offending. Adjustments were made for Standfast’s personal circumstances, and the judge applied a 50% discount for his guilty plea and cooperation with police.

His remorse, as reflected in his co-operation with police including a written confession, was also factored, along with Standfast’s significant health challenges for another discount of 10%. An end sentence of four years in prison was handed down.

‘’This is a case where there has been persistent offending over a significant number of years over a large number of victims,” Judge Hix said.

“You were able to build trust amongst the community to the point where parents trusted their children to your care to the point of allowing them to stay overnight at your home.”

Standfast’s previous conviction in 2019 for indecent assault did not add any weight, he said.

In March 2019, Standfast was sentenced to six months of community detention and two years’ intensive supervision for indecently touching and kissing a nine-yearold. He was not placed on the sex offenders’ register because he was assessed as being at low risk of reoffending.

Judge Raoul Neave said at the time, Standfast’s “opportunistic and spontaneous offending” was an isolated incident.