Gloriavale teacher Vigilant Standtrue sentenced for assaults on boys

Vigilant Standtrue has been sentenced for assaults on boys while he was a teacher at the Gloriavale Christian Community on the West Coast of the South Island. Photo / Corey Fleming

Gloriavale teacher Vigilant Standtrue used a pitchfork, stick, pipe, axe handle, broom handle and shovel handle to assault multiple boys.

One of those victims, who is now an adult, has spoken about how hard it is for him to quantify the mental strain caused by years of abuse at Standtrue’s hands.

“I find it hard to trust people now,” he said.

“It scares me as to how I was treated.”

In a victim impact statement read to the court, the 29-year-old father of four said he had lived for years without being able to cope.

“I often think of those times of abuse; my childhood was full of nightmares.”

Standtrue, 43, appeared for sentencing in the Christchurch District Court today on representative charges of assault with a blunt instrument.

The charges related to four victims aged 8 to 13 between 2001 and 2013.

Standtrue was found guilty after a jury trial in the Greymouth District Court in January.

Today, the court heard the assaults were not isolated but occurred over a period of time.

One of the victims sustained bruises.

Some of the charges indicated a single act of violence, while some indicated multiple incidents.

Standtrue was aged between 19 and 25 at the time of the assaults.

Judge Tony Zohrab said Standtrue had been tasked with supervising the boys at a commercial operation run by Gloriavale.

The boys were required to gather moss and bag it for sale.

In a letter to Judge Zohrab, Standtrue accepted the outcome of the trial, but his version of events still differed from the victims’ in terms of the use of weapons.

“I took from the comment that you deny you used a weapon of any form to assault any of the complainants,” the judge told him.

“There is only one possible truth and that is the truth found by the jury.

“These four men were not making up what happened to them at Gloriavale.

“What was clear to me is they were compelling witnesses telling the truth of what happened to them.”

The judge acknowledged Standtrue had been under pressure at the time and was quick to rise to anger.

He lacked the maturity and self-control to be able to handle the work required to manage the operation and respond to the boys he supervised, the judge said.

However, Judge Zohrab said nothing that was said or done by them could justify the response and levels of violence handed out to them.

The court heard Standtrue was now working and had nine children in his care.

His wife had told the court about the importance of his role as a father and the role he played in his children’s lives. She was concerned about him going to prison.

The judge said Standtrue had been sentenced to supervision in 2022 for assaulting a child at Gloriavale and had gained some insight into his offending.

The judge sentenced Standtrue to 10 months’ home detention.

Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.