New Zealand: gurdwara priest convicted of sexual offending against two children at the temple
Record class
Core record
Evidence status
Convicted
Authority role
Sikh priest at a gurdwara
Organization
No organization assigned
Spiritual nexus
The complainants were children attending the gurdwara where the defendant served as priest; it was that religious role, and the trust and freedom of movement it carried inside the temple, that let him take them into rooms alone.
- Pastoral or clerical authority
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2019-07-18 · conviction at trial and sentence
Auckland District Court, New Zealand (Judge Nevin Dawson). Sajan Singh, a priest at a west Auckland gurdwara, was found guilty at trial on six counts of sexual conduct with a child. The court heard he had led two girls, aged eight and twelve, into quiet rooms inside the gurdwara on separate occasions in 2017 and touched them indecently. He was sentenced to home detention and was deported to India after completing the sentence.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- religious standing at the gurdwara the children attended
- use of that role to isolate them in quiet rooms inside the temple
Primary record
Sources
- national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'Sikh priest Sajan Singh sentenced to home detention for child molestation', Stuff (New Zealand), 2019.
New Zealand national outlet reporting the six convictions, the gurdwara setting, and the sentence imposed.
Related record