Sincere Standtrue inquest: Gloriavale member says young man ‘miserable’ before death

Sincere Standtrue died at Gloriavale in 2018. A Coroner is now holding an inquest into his sudden passing.

By Anna Sargent of RNZ

A former Gloriavale member has told an inquest into the 2018 death of a young member that the 20-year-old was miserable at the Christian community.

Sincere Standtrue died at Christchurch Hospital 10 days after he was found unresponsive at Gloriavale’s paint shop, where he worked.

An inquest is being held in Greymouth to determine the cause and circumstances of his death, including whether it may have been self-inflicted.

On Friday the court heard from Clem Ready, who was a member of the Christian community for about 40 years before he left in late 2018.

Ready said he spent the most time around Standtrue in early 2018 when they were both working on the construction of a new school.

During this project he saw first-hand how Standtrue was treated by others, which troubled him, he said.

“I think that in the hierarchy of his painting team he was on the lowest rung. I found if I did ask Sincere a direct question in the presence of his workmates, someone else always jumped in and answered before he could,” Ready said.

“It seemed that Sincere got drowned out or overlooked and nobody in the team showed him much respect.”

Ready believed the only people who treated Standtrue well in Gloriavale were his close relatives.

This was disputed by Gloriavale’s lawyer, Isaac Cummings, who put to Ready that other members of the community had shown Standtrue respect, including friends and workmates.

The inquest previously heard from Gloriavale members who knew Standtrue from work and school.

Ready said he was “very upset” when he heard that Standtrue had been found unresponsive at the community’s paint shop on October 23, 2018.

‘It was like he’d been murdered by the community’

“The next morning it was explained to us there was an accident, that Sincere would recover, everything would be okay and I outright disbelieved that, I thought that was just complete nonsense, and it did turn out to be that as well.

“Overall ... it was like he’d been murdered by the community.”

The inquest previously heard from Standtrue’s sister, Rose, who said her brother was often isolated, shamed and bullied at Gloriavale.

Rose Standtrue said multiple Gloriavale members and senior leaders picked on her brother.

“As soon as [I was told Sincere was found unresponsive], I immediately thought that someone had done this to him as he was subject to bullying throughout his life,” she said.

The inquest also earlier heard from one of the Gloriavale leaders, Peter Righteous, who said he never saw any serious bullying of Standtrue and would have dealt with it if he had.

During cross-examination by Cummings, Ready was questioned about the extent he had personally seen Standtrue be bullied.

Ready said he was not present throughout Standtrue’s life and some of his evidence was drawn from what he had heard from others.

But he said that from what he observed and understood, Standtrue lived a miserable life and a lot of people contributed to that.

On Friday, the court also heard from Gloriavale man Nathanael Constant, who said he was like a father figure to Standtrue.

He said Standtrue was a joyful and helpful person, but could have problems controlling his temper and was easily provoked.

It could be in Standtrue’s nature to do impulsive things without thinking about the danger or consequence, Constant said.

Previously, Rose Standtrue told the inquest that a few months prior to her brother’s death he was sent to live in the men’s room because of his bad temper.

She said in Gloriavale, people could only move out of their family’s room once married, unless they were sent to live elsewhere as a form of punishment.

When questioned about this, Constant agreed that it was infrequent for someone to be sent to the men’s room and that it was seen as some sort of disgrace.

The inquest continues.

- RNZ