Timothy Disciple lost his fight for name suppression after losing a High Court appeal (file image). Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Another Gloriavale man jailed for child sex offences can now be named, after losing a High Court fight to keep his identity a secret.
Timothy Disciple, 41, was sentenced in the Greymouth District Court in June to two years and five months in prison, but had his jail term reduced on appeal to 21 months following a High Court hearing in Christchurch in September.
He pleaded guilty to seven charges, including indecent assault of a child under the age of 12.
Disciple also launched an appeal against a district court order lifting name suppression, but Justice Jonathan Eaton dismissed his case, noting the importance of the principle of open justice.
Despite the reduced jail term, Justice Eaton found Disciple's offending was too serious to warrant a sentence of home detention.
"The offending involved multiple victims and repeated offending over a relatively prolonged period. Although I accept that, from a rehabilitative perspective, a sentence of home detention might be seen as appropriate, that factor is outweighed by the need to impose a sentence that both denounces Mr Disciple's conduct and deters any others," he said.
Disciple's sentence relates to five victims at the West Coast Christian community, although details of his offending against two of the victims remain suppressed.
In sentencing, the district court heard Disciple assaulted a 12-year-old girl in the back of a van on a holiday in 2005 when he was 24-years-old and recently married.
When she told her parents she was feeling car sick to get away from him, Disciple assaulted the girl who was asked to sit next to him.
He also touched the breasts of two teenage girls in 2006.
When it was clear he was going to be charged in relation to two of the victims, Disciple confessed to offending against the other three, who had not made complaints.
Judge Alistair Garland said Disciple's repeated offending showed a significant degree of premeditation and had an immense impact on one of the victims.
"In the context of the community in which she lives those consequences could be lifelong. That is very sad indeed, given that what happened to her was not her fault," he said.
Disciple sought permanent name suppression on the grounds that publication would cause him and his family extreme hardship and could lead people to identify the victims.
Disciple's lawyer told the court he was concerned about the likelihood of unbalanced and prejudicial media articles and social media comments, with existing posts calling Gloriavale a "cult" and demands for it to shut down.
While vitriol had been directed at the Christian community in general, Justice Eaton found there was nothing to suggest Disciple would be personally targeted.
He ruled Disciple had failed to meet the threshold for granting suppression, noting "the importance of the principle of open justice, particularly in relation to sexual offending against children and young people".
RNZ was last week able to reveal Gloriavale man Joseph Hope, 43, had been sentenced to two years and nine months in prison for sexual offending against a girl under the age of 12.
He lost both a High Court fight to keep his name a secret and an appeal against his sentence, after being convicted of one charge of sexual violation and three of indecent assault.
