A Gloriavale man has been sentenced to 10 months’ home detention for assaulting children with weapons.
The Christchurch District Court heard Vigilant Standtrue was convicted of seven charges of assault with a weapon, involving four victims, while supervising boys working at Gloriavale’s moss shed between 2001 and 2013.
The victims were aged between 8 and 13 when Standtrue used sticks, plastic pipes, broom handles, a shovel and a pitchfork on them.
Judge Tony Zohrab said the victims were truthful and credible, and the violence was never justified, regardless of the pressures of the work.
The court also heard Standtrue had previously been sentenced in 2022 to a year of supervision for assaulting a child at Gloriavale.
Standtrue then completed a year of supervision and undertook anger‑management programmes.
Judge Zohrab said Standtrue had addressed his behaviour but warned a prison sentence would have been unavoidable if this offending had occurred later.
He said while the offending was serious, home detention was the least restrictive sentence that still met the aims of justice.