Gloriavale children hit by decades of government inaction – leavers

From left: Dennis Gates, Pearl Valor and Virginia Courage at the Decult conference in Christchurch.
Photo: RNZ/Jean Edwards

Gloriavale leavers and their advocates have condemned what they say are 30 years of inaction by bureaucrats and politicians, warning that the Christian community’s 400 children are still at risk of harm.

Speaking at the Decult conference in Christchurch on Sunday, lawyer Dennis Gates also called for children to be removed from Gloriavale so they could enjoy the freedoms, rights and privileges of all New Zealanders.

Joined on stage by former members Virginia Courage and Pearl Valor, and chief executive of the Gloriavale Leavers Support Trust, Liz Gregory, Gates told the conference that the community’s seemingly idyllic west coast site was home to a slave labor camp.

“The only thing I can compare it to is the old battery-style accommodation you had for egg-laying chows, just adapted to human needs,” he said.

“One of the things you won’t find in Gloriavale is a free-roaming Christian. They’re all basically locked up.”

Gates said Gloriavale founder Hopeful Christian – formally known as Neville Cooper – was a liar, cheater, bully and sexual deviant.

He was initially sentenced to six years in prison for indecent assault in 1994, but after an appeal and retrial he was sentenced to five years in prison in 1995. Christian spent eleven months in prison before being released on parole.

In an August 1994 pre-sentence report, a probation officer noted, “I can’t help but wonder about the future of the children in particular, should he return to live there in the future,” Gates said .

He said the comment proved that bureaucrats knew about the risks to children 30 years ago, when Valor and Valor were children.

‘They have had to endure thirty years of bureaucratic inaction. In 1994 you had a bureaucrat who said those children were in danger, and they are still in danger,” Gates said.

He said Gloriavale children should be removed and their parents can go too.

“There are approximately 400 children under the age of 18 in Gloriavale. They should be taken out. I don’t care what the process is as long as it’s legal, but they need to be taken out, they need to be taken out and given what everyone else in New Zealand has: all the freedoms, rights and privileges of a New Zealander citizen,” he said.

“Sitting and watching as if you were watching a reality show on TV is not an option. This is not a reality show, this is reality for these people.”

Participants at the Decult conference in Christchurch.
Photo: RNZ/Jean Edwards

Gregory said families should stay together where possible, but moved to another area to live as autonomous units.

“Yes, it will be difficult if Gloriavale implodes and collapses on itself and there are people who need to be rehoused. There are only 50 families left – 270 people have left in the last ten years, family after family with 13 children. Somehow we managed to resettle them. she said.

Courage said Gloriavale members were victims of massive bureaucratic and political failures.

On the day Hopeful Christian was arrested, she recalled trying to stop her mother’s interrogation by police at the age of 13.

Courage – who has previously waived her right to call out oppression – said a proper police interview could have exposed the abuse she endured during her childhood.

“They didn’t do their job, they didn’t do any investigation, they didn’t do any follow-up, they didn’t care,” she said.

“I was 13. I had to be 41 before I spoke to a cop and told them what happened. I thought it was my fault until I was 41. I didn’t know I was a child, I thought I was a child .consenting adult, so that’s why I didn’t talk.

“Powerful people allowed this to happen and they must be held accountable. Gloriavale still exists, it still functions and it still harms people every day.”

The previous Labor government established a now disbanded Joint Response to Gloriavale, made up of local, working and government groups.

Gates said one of the task force’s roles was to assess, assess, monitor and mitigate risks to the governance group, thereby protecting top bureaucrats.

“They should be protecting the people of Gloriavale, not their own bastards,” he said.

Gates said he had pointed out shortcomings in Social Development Minister Louise Upston’s briefings to new ministers in May, but that he had seen “no evidence whatsoever that she did anything, anything at all”.

In July, the government was urged to immediately do what it could to ensure the safety of everyone in Gloriavale after the Royal Commission found leaders were allowing physical and sexual abuse in the west coast Christian community.

Lawyer Brian Henry has filed a High Court case against the Attorney General, who is being sued on behalf of five government agencies accused of knowingly allowing abuse to take place in Gloriavale.

A multimillion-dollar class action lawsuit has also been filed against Gloriavale and five government agencies by former members who claim they were held as slaves from birth by the Christian community’s leaders.

Police have been investigating allegations of forced labour, slavery and servitude in Gloriavale.

In two separate cases, the chief judge of the Labor Court ruled that nine former members were Gloriavale employees, not volunteers, who worked in the community’s domestic teams, or in factories and farms.

A government spokesperson said allegations of damage in Gloriavale were a matter for the police and Oranga Tamariki. RNZ has contacted them for comment, along with Upston and Children’s Minister Karen Chour.

A spokesperson for Gloriavale declined to comment. Community leaders previously said they would not tolerate abuse and had systematically tried to eradicate the violations with the help of Oranga Tamariki and the police.