Sincere Standtrue inquest: ‘Faith a barrier’ to Gloriavale member taking own life – workmate
- A Gloriavale man has told the inquest into the death of Sincere Standtrue that he does not believe the 20-year-old took his own life
- Standtrue died in hospital in 2018, 10 days after he was found unresponsive at the Christian community’s paint shop
- An inquest is being held in Greymouth to determine whether his death was accidental or self-inflicted
- Willing Disciple said Standtrue was verbally abused and bullied by other Gloriavale members
- But he said he was happy in the days before he died and would not purposefully endanger himself, especially because of his faith
Warning: This story discusses suicide.
A Gloriavale man has told an inquest that he does not believe a young member who died in 2018 took his own life.
Sincere Standtrue died at Christchurch Hospital, 10 days after he was found unresponsive at the Christian community’s paint shop.
An inquest is being held in Greymouth to determine the cause and circumstances of the 20-year-old’s death, including whether it may have been self-inflicted.
On Wednesday the court heard from Willing Disciple, who worked at the paint shop with Standtrue.
Disciple said he went through school with Standtrue but got to know him when they started working together.
“We’d paint together at different locations in the community. Sincere would never talk to me about deep issues, he would mainly talk about work related stuff.”
Standtrue was well read and a deep thinker, someone who would “zone out” on occasions when he was thinking about something intently, he said.
Disciple said Standtrue was bullied by other Gloriavale members.
“Most of it would have been verbal abuse, usually about how small or weak he was,” he said.
“When Sincere was being bullied in the past I would see him unhappy and affected by it.”
But Disciple said Standtrue was generally a happy person, and was happy in the days before he died.
“That morning [Standtrue was found unresponsive] I had spoken to him about the project he was working on in the paint shed, I think he was painting the toddler shed, doing a project all by himself. I asked how he was going with it and he said he’d almost or completely finished it. He was happy about that,” he said.
“He was perhaps a bit slow at using his own initiative and liked to be told step-by-step what to do, which was why he was quite happy he had done or almost finished that job by himself.”
Standtrue was found unresponsive in the paint shop that evening, on 23 October, 2018.
The person raised the alarm and Standtrue was carried out of the shop and placed on the lawn outside. Medical checks and CPR were performed before he was flown to hospital, but his injuries were not survivable.
Disciple did not believe Standtrue had taken his own life.
“It doesn’t align with his nature and my experience of him. He didn’t do things to purposely endanger himself. [In Gloriavale] We believe that taking our own lives is not a way to solve a problem, we’re taught that from a young age and it is in the Bible.
“I believe Sincere would’ve found his faith a barrier.”
The inquest also heard from Gloriavale man Diligent Stedfast, who was one of the community members who attended to Standtrue after he was found.
“I think I did CPR for about 30 minutes, I think someone else took over from me until the helicopter arrived because I was getting knackered,” Stedfast said.
He said they never put a defibrillator on Standtrue because when they went to use it the battery was flat.
“For a while I thought: Did I do CPR properly’? Would the defibrillator have worked? Would it have made a difference?”
Stedfast said he did not think it was normal for Standtrue to be working alone in the paint shop as he had done that day.
On Tuesday, the court heard from Gloriavale woman Hope Disciple who talked to Standtrue at the shop on the afternoon of 23 October, and believed she was the last person to see him alive.
She said they joked together, and nothing about his manner seemed out of the ordinary.
The inquest continues.