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NZ Herald
21 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Gloriavale leader Howard Temple pleads guilty to indecent assault
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Already a subscriber? Sign in here Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen. Gloriavale leader Howard Temple. Photo / George Heard The 85-year-old leader of the remote West Coast Christian sect Gloriavale has pleaded guilty to indecent assault. Howard Temple had earlier pleaded not guilty to 24 counts of sexual offending involving girls as young as nine. But as the third day of his judge alone trial at Greymouth District Court began, Temple changed his plea on half of the charges, some of which are representative. The charges, some of which are representative, include five of indecent assault, five of doing an indecent act and two common assault charges. The other charges were dropped.
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- NZ Herald
Christchurch man Shane Bell sentenced for years of sexual abuse and exploitation
'I am angry with him, with what he did to me.' He said Bell's actions had made him feel insecure. 'I could not trust other men, I thought they would do the same. I think he should go to jail for a long time - other teenagers should not have to go through this.' Bell, 49, sat expressionless in the Christchurch District Court as the teen and his father, flanked by supporters, struggled to contain their emotions at times during the sentencing hearing. The boy's father said he had a lot of trust in Bell being around his son. 'I don't have any trust in him now after what he has done to my son. I don't even like talking about him, as it makes me angry, what [he did] to my son. 'It has made me mindful of who I allow around my other kids, as I don't want this to happen to any of them. It has become a very traumatic experience.' He added that the experience 'has made me closer to my son, which I am grateful for'. The boy's father said the abuse had taken a toll on his family as they had to deal with residual trauma. The court heard the victim was extremely vulnerable, with a head injury, and Bell had taken advantage of him. A pre-sentence report indicated Bell was at high risk of reoffending, with distorted thinking and no display of remorse. Alongside charges of sexual connection with a young person and indecent acts with a young person, Bell faced charges of possessing hundreds of objectionable publications and making an objectionable publication that involved the victim. He would look after the victim, who would often spend time at Bell's house and stay overnight. Over 18 months, he performed sex acts on the boy and told him not to tell anyone. The victim was too scared to reveal what was happening. The boy told Bell it was illegal and tried to get away from him once, but Bell held him down. The victim believed Bell had committed the sex acts on him about 50 times. Bell also supplied the boy with cannabis and alcohol. Bell came to the attention of Polish authorities via a cellphone that had received child exploitation material, and in early 2023 the information was passed on to New Zealand police, who executed a search warrant on his home, seizing several devices. More than 1000 files were found on his laptop and cellphone, images involving young boys in a variety of sexual acts and a large array of animals being sexually violated. Bell's web history showed more than 100 searches for child exploitation material and bestiality. Also on his phone were photographs and videos of Bell and the victim. Bell was jailed for six years and three months at the Christchurch District Court. Photo / George Heard Judge Gerard Lynch described the offending as deplorable, vile and degrading. The judge said Bell had told authorities that if the victim had been unhappy with the offending, he would not have visited his home. Bell's main concern while in custody was with the wellbeing of his cats, Judge Lynch said. Bell was at high risk without treatment, and it had been noted that an intensive sexual treatment programme would be vital. Judge Lynch did not accept Bell's apology and sentenced him to six years and three months' jail. Bell was also placed on the Child Sex Offenders Register as part of his sentencing. 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 past 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.
NZ Herald
24-06-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Foodstuffs expands with $380m in projects, new North Shore Pak'nSave planned
New Zealand's biggest supermarket business has embarked on an Auckland and Christchurch expansion, via separate southern and northern co-ops. How much may be spent fixing or rebuilding the fire-damaged New World Victoria Park is not yet known but experts said anything from $20m to $50m could be needed if a full rebuild was undertaken, taking the spending to well above $300m. The South Island's biggest supermarket, the vast new Pak'nSave Rolleston, is due to open on October 14. Photo / George Heard Foodstuffs, which sells food and drink under the Pak'nSave, New World, Four Square, Gilmours and Liquorland brands, has a big programme for new and upgraded stores and distribution centres. Why? More customers, spending more. We are staying home to cook. We're not out as much as we were because of the economic downturn and some shopper habits have been permanently changed by Covid. A rare look inside the huge new Pak'nSave Rolleston this month. Photo / George Heard For example, New Zealanders are buying more frozen goods and more prepared meals, according to Kris Lancaster, Foodstuffs South Island's supply chain general manager. And he would know: he's in charge of the $28m development of the new frozen distribution centre at Hornby, a building to be chilled to -20C and which is due to open shortly. Foodstuffs South Island's new $28m automated freezer distribution centre. Photo / George Heard Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island, in their $380m-plus expansion and upgrade programme, have: Sought consent from Auckland Council for the $100m, 6000sq m Pak'nSave Takapuna on a reclaimed greenfields site, 6 Fred Thomas Drive opposite the Lake House. Application lodged last year; Developed and opened in February the new $100m Pak'nSave Highland Park; Developed the new $73m New World Pt Chevalier, set to open this September; Bought Woolworths Te Atatū to upgrade to New World Te Atatū; Developed and are opening the $40m+ Pak'nSave Rolleston near Christchurch this October; Developed the new $28m frozen distribution centre at Hornby, Christchurch, set to open on August 21; Refurbished and expanded the flood-hit New World Mt Albert for $6m; Opened the New Four Square Ōpunaki near New Plymouth in April, costing about $6m; Opened the Four Square Waipawa in Hawke's Bay last November, costing about $5m; Opened the Four Square Putāruru last November, costing about $5m; Opened the New World The Stands at Pāpāmoa on November 5; And developed the Gilmours Hawkes Bay, which was only a delivery service. Last month, it opened as a wholesale cash-and-carry store for customers in a $12.6m upgrade. A vast new Pak'nSave Takapuna could have a terrible effect on Quintin Proctor's highly profitable Pak'nSave Wairau Road. Proctor is on the National Business Review's rich list and bought that store aged 38. A 6000sq m Pak'nSave store, costing possibly $100m, is planned at 6 Fred Thomas Drive, Takapuna. Pak'nSave owners can only have one store, so he can't protect his prized position via buying that new store, if it is built. Planners Bentley and Co submitted an application for the Pak'nSave Takapuna to be built on a floodplain, with overland flow paths. The plan was to raise the ground levels for flooding mitigation. The mostly flat site was once part of the Barrys Pt landfill, which closed in the 1970s and is near the on-ramp to the motorway. Flood-damaged food inside the Pak'nSave Wairau Road after the devastating Auckland floods of January 2023. In January 2023, Porana Rd, where Proctor's store is, was filled with water. Fred Thomas Drive was also closed because of flooding. Last July, the Herald listed eight new and replacement supermarkets for Auckland, Tauranga and Havelock North. Quintin Proctor was 38 when he bought the Pak'nSave Wairau Park, one of the country's largest supermarkets. Since then, Property Insider has visited Christchurch and seen the expansion there, viewing the distribution centre at Hornby and the new, nearly finished Pak'nSave at Rolleston. $18.66m Tauranga sale Simon Clark, Colliers managing director in Tauranga, has announced the sale of 262-266 Cameron Rd for $18.66m. The 4900sq m freehold retail property in the central city has four retailers: Noel Leeming, Chemist Warehouse, Animates and Elite Fitness. Clark congratulated Classic Collectives and the syndicate of investors who bought it. A commercial site in Tauranga that houses Noel Leeming, Animates, Chemist Warehouse and Elite Fitness has been sold for $18.6m. The property is a short walk from the CBD and home to four national tenants on long-term leases. That will give guaranteed rental growth and excellent exposure, he said. Clark worked with Colliers colleagues Rob Schoeser, Peter Herdson and Blair Peterken on the sale. Classic Collectives says it is a joint-venture company established with house-building business Classic Group. Deals at three Metlifecare sites Metlifecare's expansion is continuing, although some parts of its growth were only noted latterly. Two purchases and one sale were approved in the last three years but not announced till the end of May. The Overseas Investment Office (OIO) last month announced approved transactions for 2023 and 2024. A Metlifecare spokeswoman said the OIO must publish decision or notification summaries on its website but only announced the three new deals when it reviewed its records. Metlifecare CEO Earl Gasparich says the third-largest retirement village company has undergone a significant transformation behind closed doors over the past four years. The Springlands Lifestyle Village in Blenheim is an established village. A property at 42 Lakings Rd was bought to extend the village by building 24 new independent units. Construction has taken place over the past two years and is due for completion shortly, the spokeswoman said. A site in Hamilton's Rototuna at 135 Horsham Downs Rd was purchased to be developed. Construction of the first 29 villas is due to start in the next few months. This new village will have 72 independent living units, an aged care home and a communal amenity building. Stage one of the village is scheduled for completion by mid-2026. In the third deal, Metlifecare sold a property at 2-6 Emmett St, Shirley, Christchurch. This is an adjacent section to The Village Palms, an established village. 'We have recently entered into an agreement to sell the property,' the spokeswoman said. 'Settlement is scheduled for July.' Marutūahu-Ockham opens Kōanga Kōanga, the build-to-rent apartment block, opened in June in Waterview. The development is at 2 Oakley Ave, Auckland. Photo / Ockham The five-iwi Marutūahu collective, along with developers Ockham Residential, this month opened the 36-unit build-to-rent apartments, Kōanga. The bright yellow block is at 2 Oakley Ave, Waterview, behind the stylish, red-brick Kōkihi, which is above the Waterview motorway tunnels. The opening of Ockham development's new apartment block Kōkihi in Waterview, Auckland. Photo / Alex Burton Kōkihi at Waterview by a Māori/Pākehā joint venture. Photo / Alex Burton Ben Gibbons, Ockham's chief operating officer, said: 'The Ockham and Marutūahu partnership is having a profound impact on this wider area with beautiful and considered intensification, with Kōkihi and Aroha in such close proximity, and the first stage at Carrington Road, just over the creek, nearing completion.' Kōanga, the rental apartments, at 2 Oakley Ave, Waterview, Auckland. This project was opened in June. Photo / Ockham He was referring to blocks in Waterview and Avondale. The Kōanga build-to-rent apartments, developed at 2 Oakley Ave, Waterview, Auckland. The project was opened in June. Photo / Ockham The now-completed Ockham buildings are: The Ockham Building, 25 apartments, Kingsland Wilkinson House (see below) The Wamaka Buildings, Wilkinson Rd, Ellerslie, 18 apartments The Isaac, 75 apartments, Grey Lynn The Turing, 27 apartments, Grey Lynn Station R, 37 apartments, Mt Eden Hypatia, 61 apartments, Newmarket Daisy, 33 apartments, Mt Eden Bernoulli Gardens, 120 apartments, Hobsonville Set Buildings, 72 apartments, Avondale Tuatahi, 119 apartments, Mt Albert Modal, 32 apartments, Mt Albert Kōkihi, 95 apartments, Waterview The Nix, 32 apartments, Grey Lynn Koa Flats, 14 apartments, Meadowbank Aroha, 117 units, Avondale Manaaki, 210 units, Onehunga; Kōanga, 36 build-to-rent units, Waterview. Last month, people were invited to see inside Toi, the first, almost-completed apartment building at the new multi-billion dollar Maungārongo village in Ōwairaka Mt Albert. Toi, the new apartment building in Ōwairaka Mt Albert by Marutūāhu-Ockham, as at late February, 2025. Photo / Ockham Residential Marutūāhu-Ockham has got the new 65-unit Toi block up but not yet completed at Carrington, on ex-Unitec land. That is part of a wider scheme to build around 40 new apartment blocks with 3000 units in the next two decades. The new Toi apartment block in Ōwairaka Mt Albert by Marutūāhu-Ockham is nearing completion. Photo / Ockham Residential Toi is due to be finished later this year. But sales have been slow. By May, only a third of the units in the six-level block had been sold, even though Toi is due to be finished soon. 'We are 34% sold across this project, with a flurry of new interest this year,' an Ockham saleswoman said of Toi. 'We are looking forward to Q4, when the building is anticipated to be complete and we can hand over keys to the excited purchasers.' On this month's opening of Kōanga, Ockham said: 'The fifth Marutūāhu-Ockham development and the partnership's first build-to-rent project – it was a special day for us and for Waterview.' Anne Gibson has been the Herald's property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
The Spinoff
11-06-2025
- The Spinoff
How a man googling PORN HUB ended up on the Herald's website
The Herald killed the picture of PORN HUB man. But it can't kill the idea of PORN HUB man. A Herald report last Friday began with a profound truth. 'Internet users are suffering,' it read, before adding six unnecessary words, 'outages across New Zealand this morning.' The story was a boilerplate account of the blackout, which later reports would reveal was the result of the Australian navy flicking the wrong switch and accidentally wiping out half our infrastructure. So far, so New Zealand. But internet users who hadn't been severed from the mainframe by a clumsy seaman or petty officer were able to take a closer look at the article. They saw something awry. It was illustrated with a picture of a man sitting at a computer with Google open on his web browser. His search was easily visible if you zoomed in a bit. 'PORN HUB,' it read. How did this image make it to the country's website of record? Why was it used in a story about internet outages? The obvious answer is that a bleary-eyed online editor added a stock image to the story without looking closely. But as sleuths on Reddit pointed out, PORN HUB man's bookmarks bar contains websites that don't feature on Getty, including Stuff and the Herald. The only possible conclusion is someone met with a local photographer and sat down to be snapped typing 'PORN HUB' into Google. More websites and search requests may also have been involved, as it appears 'porno-hub videos – has already been clicked. The original story gave its image credit to George Heard, a photographer who works with the Herald in Christchurch. Emails to Heard were met with a request to refer questions to NZME's in-house comms person. The Spinoff did that, even though it suspected NZME's in-house comms person would be unlikely to divulge useful information. Its emails were not answered. A reverse image search was more successful. It showed PORN HUB man may originally have been used in 2021 on stories by Anna Leask and David Fisher about revenge porn and child sexual abuse images. It's possible that in the Herald's image library, the photo wasn't titled in a way that indicated its true nature. Whatever happened, PORN HUB man lay dormant until the morning of June 6, 2025, when a web editor typed something like 'internet' or 'computer' into the Herald CMS, and attached a photo that at first glance looked appropriate, but on closer inspection was of a man furiously googling PORN HUB to find genres such as 'teen', 'hottest porn videos', 'porn videos', 'gay porn', and 'recommended'. The mistake was spotted quickly. Herald staffers contacted by The Spinoff said the image was removed within 15 minutes, after it was queried in the corrections channel of the office Slack. It wasn't fast enough. Diligent Redditors captured the image. One post about it has been upvoted more than 2,100 times. Though some might be embarrassed, staff at the Herald appear to be taking the mistake in their stride. In a statement to The Spinoff, one summed up the reaction: 'I want you to know my available-for-publishing statement as an NZ Herald staffer is that the incident was 'funny as fuck'.'
NZ Herald
03-06-2025
- Climate
- NZ Herald
Weather: Temperatures set to plunge amid snow, wind warnings, heavy rain
Kiwis are set to be plunged into the depths of winter this week as a powerful cold front threatens to bring a 'dramatic temperature drop'. Photo / George Heard Kiwis will be plunged into the depths of winter this week as a powerful cold front threatens to bring a 'dramatic temperature drop' and even lowland snow later in the week.
