Royal commission gathering evidence relating to Gloriavale

Wednesday, 26 August 2020

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care is looking into Gloriavale, with an investigation into the community possible.

It comes amid revelations Gloriavale leaders forced a 13-year-old girl to sit in a room with a man who allegedly groomed her, because their versions of events did not match up.

Stuff earlier revealed the community’s sexual assault policy gave offenders “second and third chances” to stop offending – along with more rounds of forgiveness and repentance meetings if they failed to stop – before leaders would consider kicking them out of the community.

On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, established in 2018, confirmed it had Gloriavale on its radar.

“Allegations of abuse and neglect at Gloriavale are within our scope, and we are beginning to gather evidence about what has happened there.”

The focus of the inquiry is what happened at Gloriavale between 1950 and 1999, with some discretion to hear about abuse outside those dates. The inquiry's work to date has included meeting with representatives of the Gloriavale Leavers’ Support Trust.

Gloriavale did not come within the investigations into faith-based institutions that had been carried out to date, such as inquiries into the Catholic Church and Anglican Church, the spokeswoman said.

“However, other investigations into faith-based institutions will be set up, as the inquiry progresses.”

Stuff has spoken to the mother of the 13-year-old girl who was allegedly “groomed” in mid-2018.

The mother first knew of the allegations when her daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she had something to tell her.

“I could tell by the look on her face that it was something bad.”

The girl told her the man, understood to be in his late 30s, had been making inappropriate comments about her appearance, including her underwear, for several months. The latest incident involved the man pulling her into a dark room and not allowing the lights to be turned on.

“He was trying to touch her, and she kept backing away from him, and she kept repeating to him: if you touch me I am going to go and tell my mother.”

The girl told her mother what happened shortly after leaving the room.

“I was so angry,” the mother said. She was unaware of Gloriavale's sexual assault policy until several months later.

Two leaders at Gloriavale found out about the allegations from a third party and took the girl out of school without her parents knowing to ask her what happened.

Two days later, the leaders said they wanted to hold a meeting between the girl and the alleged offender because their stories “were not matching up”.

“I said: you are not going to put my 13-year-old in front of the guy who has been grooming her and expect that she is going to say what happened to her. I said: I don’t want it to happen.”

She said the leaders told her they needed the meeting to happen, so it went ahead.

The mother, who attended the meeting with her husband, said the man denied all the allegations. She said he did admit to the girl’s father that he wanted to have sex with the 13-year-old.

The man was sent to live on a farm within Gloriavale, kept his job and his standing in the community, and had access to his family.

“I don’t feel like there was an investigation at all, they don’t actually want to hear what you say, they don’t want to hear how you feel, they don’t want to hear how angry you are.

“They want things to go away and they get that … by the perpetrator saying he is sorry, by the victim saying: I forgive you, now we don’t talk about it again.”

Police were eventually involved but the family decided not to pursue the matter further as they were worried about losing their place in the community.

The family left Gloriavale about 10 months ago as they felt the community was making the 13-year-old’s life “miserable”.

“[People] would listen to every single accusation that went around about her, they would listen to every little story that someone said. She was getting sadder and sadder,” the mother said.

“We had lived there for 40 years, so I have seen people who have gone through situations like that, they get stereotyped.

“The victim can never get out of the mould that maybe they were in the wrong place because they were disobedient, maybe they were putting themselves out there, and they shouldn’t have been.”

A police spokesperson said police were notified in June 2018 about an alleged indecent incident involving a young person six weeks earlier.

Police immediately launched an investigation, which included speaking to the young person, their parents, potential witnesses and the alleged offender.

“A resolution was reached that took into account the views of the victim and their family at the time, and addressed the safety of the young person concerned,” the spokesperson said.