Sect to resolve claims in-house

Gloriavale leaders will not notify police of sexual assault allegations when they are first reported, according to a Government investigation into serious allegations at the isolated religious community.

Five women interviewed for the investigation alleged they were victims of sexual assault during their time at the West Coast community.

Investigators heard allegations community members and other women had been sexually assaulted by the same alleged offender.

There were also claims Gloriavale leaders were aware of the allegations, blamed the victims and failed to take action.

The report, released under the Official Information Act this week, was sparked by allegations of sexual and physical assault former Gloriavale members made to media in 2015.

Charities Services, a division of the Department of Internal Affairs, decided to investigate as the allegations could breach the Charities Act.

In response to the Government report, Gloriavale leaders drafted a new policy on how they would deal with physical or sexual assault allegations. The policy was released as an appendix to the report.

It says allegations would be investigated by the community. If they were found to be true, "involved parties’’ would be gathered together and warned not to ‘‘disobey the commandments of the Bible’’ or break ‘‘the law of New Zealand’’.

The trustees would then seek to ‘‘bring the offender to genuine repentance for their transgression toward the person’’.

They would then ‘‘watch carefully afterwards and check up, that all such sexual assault has come to a complete end’’.

If the offending continued they would then tell the offender to leave and confess to police. If the person did not, then Gloriavale leaders would finally notify police, the policy states.

A police investigation into allegations at Gloriavale is ongoing.

Gloriavale trustee Fervent Stedfast said the sexual assault allegations were unfounded.

Child, Youth and Family deputy chief executive Murray Edridge said they had worked with children from two families at Gloriavale.

‘‘Our primary concern is protecting the confidentiality of the children and families we work with. In this instance we worked with two families to ensure the ongoing safety of the children.’’