The former leader of Gloriavale has won an appeal he took after being sentenced for sexual offending against young girls and will no longer be jailed.
Howard Temple, 85, pleaded guilty to 12 charges, including indecent assault, involving young women and girls between 2002 and 2022.
His crimes were against members of the conservative Christian sect he lived in near Greymouth, where he was a senior leader. The offending included inappropriate touching of his victim’s breasts, bottoms, inner thighs, back, waist and body on various occasions, as well as kissing of his victim’s necks.
He was sentenced to 26 months imprisonment in December but took an appeal to the High Court, with his lawyer arguing that the punishment was "too excessive".
Temple won that appeal today, with Justice Owen Paulsen quashing his jail sentence and substituting it with one of 11 months home detention.
The judge said that Temple’s name should also be removed from the child sex offender register.
In his reserved judgement, issued this afternoon, Justice Paulsen found the starting point considered by the district court judge when deciding on the jail term was "excessive".
After including credit in respect of "his guilty pleas, willingness to participate in restorative justice/remorse, age and ill health, and restrictive bail conditions", this moved the sentence into a zone where home detention could be considered.
"Home detention is a significant sentence and may serve the purposes of denunciation and deterrence," the judgment reads.
Justice Paulsen noted that the appellant’s lawyer, Michael Vesty, had emphasised that Temple was 85 years old and suffered from "mild cognitive impairment" that was beyond what would be expected from normal aging.
He also referred to a report from a clinical psychologist which found that imprisonment would be an especially harsh outcome given Temple’s age, cognitive vulnerability and "limited capacity to cope with a custodial environment".
The judgement notes that the proposed home detention address was in Greymouth, not on Glorivale property.
"Mr Vesty argues that Mr Temple will be isolated from his community even more than he was whilst on bail, and the punitive aspect of a home detention sentence will be even more significant in those circumstances," the judgement reads.
Vesty’s arguments had been disputed by Crown lawyer Aaron Harvey, who described them as "relatively unrestricted" at appeal hearing last month.
The Crown lawyer reminded the court that Temple was someone of high standing within the Christian community and therefore had a "greater responsibility" to look after its members.
"A guilty plea is an acknowledgement that he has let them down and taken advantage," he said.
Ultimately, Justice Paulsen found that home detention was an appropriate sentence.
"A sentence of home detention would be a significant sentence for Mr Temple given his age and the effect of further separation from his community," he said.
“Imprisonment is not necessary in this case for Mr Temple’s rehabilitation, given his identified low risk of reoffending and because the legal process itself has already had a deterrent effect."
The judge also found that Temple’s "advanced age and cognitive impairment" meant imprisonment would be disproportionately severe.
Finally, he removed Temple’s registration on the child sex offender register, noting that "the effect of quashing the sentence of imprisonment is that registration on the Register is no longer automatic".
"Although repetitive and spanning a significant period of time, the seriousness of Mr Temple’s offending was at the lower end of the range of qualifying offences," the judgement reads.
"None of the victims remain in Gloriavale. Further, Gloriavale has introduced a policy for the risk management of those, such as Mr Temple, who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviors."
Temple has been on bail awaiting the outcome.
As part of his bail conditions, he must stay at an address adjacent to the Gloriavale settlement, not associate with any of the victims, not access the commune’s main buildings, and not have contact with girls under the age of 18.
He will now move onto his sentence of home detention, which will end early 2027.
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