Former Gloriavale indecent assault victim to speak out

Children dressed in Cooperite clothing walk at Gloriavale. Photo / Supplied

The woman who put Gloriavale Christian Community guru Hopeful Christian in prison for indecent assault in the 1980s has had her name suppression lifted so she can tell her story on national television.

She will appear on the TV One show Sunday this weekend.

In previews for the show, the woman says there will be "no more hiding in shadows".

"[Hopeful] has got to be stopped."

Mr Christian, previously Neville Cooper, faced three charges of indecent assault from January 1984 relating to a 19-year-old member of the Christian community when it was based at Cust, in North Canterbury. The woman testified that she was penetrated with a wooden object.

Mr Christian said she was given the object and encouraged to use it on herself as "therapy".

In 1996, he failed to have his five-year jail sentence for indecent assault reduced. He was released that November.

The move from Cust to Lake Haupiri, inland from Nelson Creek, started in 1991 and was accompanied by a name change to the Gloriavale Christian Community.

Meanwhile, a request under the Official Information Act seems to confirm Gloriavale members do not receive social security benefits, despite claims by Campbell Live to the contrary.

The Greymouth Star asked how many people in the Haupiri area were receiving some form of benefit, after some ex-members suggested they may be.

The Ministry of Social Development said yesterday it could not reveal how many people were collecting a benefit because the numbers were too small, at less than five.

The Gloriavale website says members put their money in non-interest bearing bank accounts, while a booklet given out at the biennial Gloriavale concerts says: "We do not take welfare benefits, borrow money, or invest money on interest".

The Department of Internal Affairs confirmed late last week it was investigating Gloriavale's charity status.

The community owns assets of $36.6 million, including a dairy farm, deer enterprise and an aircraft repair firm - all operated from its reclusive base at Lake Haupiri.

The tax-exempt charity operating as the Christian Church Community Trust is run by four church leaders and headed by Hopeful Christian, who is referred to in documents as the"Overseeing Shepherd".

- The Greymouth Star