Gloriavale leader denies seeing outright bullying
One of the leaders of the Gloriavale Christian Community has told an inquest into the death of a young man in 2018 that he never saw any serious bullying of him.
Sincere Standtrue, 20, was found unresponsive in Gloriavale's paint shop where he worked, in October 2018.
He later died in hospital.
Coroner Alexandra Cunninghame was presiding over the inquest into his death in Greymouth, which included whether his death was accidental or self-inflicted, and his mindset at the time he died.
Yesterday, the inquest heard from Peter Righteous, a servant or senior leader, at the community.
Righteous was a teacher at Gloriavale between 1986 and 2022, and was one of Standtrue’s teachers for four years when Standtrue was aged between 10 and 14.
He said Standtrue was hard of hearing and often did not wear his hearing aid. He described him as slow.
Righteous said they did have experience in dealing with people with disabilities, and took care to help Standtrue.
In response to a question over whether Sincere was bullied by the other students at Gloriavale, he said he thought the interactions were typical for primary aged kids.
He said there was a bit of teasing, a bit of ragging, but on the whole Standtrue seemed to get on well with the other children.
“Boys will do things behind your back but I never saw any outright bullying ugly behaviour. They all teased each other. I never saw any outright ugly bullying of Sincere Standtrue, and if I had seen some I would have dealt with it.”
The inquest has heard previously from Standtrue's sister Rose, that he was often isolated, shamed, bullied and beaten at the Christian community.
Brian Henry, the lawyer for Rose, asked Righteous why Standtrue had been denied the opportunity to take Gloriavale’s commitment vow.
Henry said the commitment vow was a rite of passage.
People in the Gloriavale Christian Community could not marry unless they have taken the vow.
Righteous said the opportunity was delayed, not denied, and Standtrue needed further growth to manage his anger.
He said Standtrue was having issues with his anger, and he could not take the vow until he had more maturity.
“One of the points for the commitment vow was for our women folk. There was no way anyone could marry Sincere Standtrue if he had anger issues.”
He said Standtrue would have had guidance on the issue from a older member of the community who lived in the same accommodation block, and there was talk of him doing an external anger management course.
The coroner asked Righteous about Standtrue’s personality and temper.
She asked if Righteous would describe Sincere as impulsive.
Righteous said he would, and referred to an incident in which he had thrown a sewing machine over a railing, and incidents where he saw him lash out at people in anger.
The inquest continues.