An inquest into the death of a 20-year-old Gloriavale man is underway in Greymouth. Sincere Standtrue died in Christchurch Hospital in November 2018, the eldest in his family of 11 siblings. Photo: Joanne Naish/The Press
A young Gloriavale man who was found unresponsive in the Christian community's paint shop had spoken to his workmates only 20 minutes earlier, an inquest has heard.
Sincere Standtrue died at Christchurch Hospital, 10 days later.
An inquest is being held to determine the cause and circumstances of the 20-year-old's death, including whether it may have been self-inflicted.
On Thursday, the court heard from Gloriavale man Michael Trust, who worked with Standtrue in the painting team.
Trust had a conversation with Standtrue and another workmate on the radio at about 5.10pm on 23 October 2018.
Standtrue was checking whether he could use a certain type of paint for a job, Trust said.
"I am not entirely sure of the paint job but I am pretty sure it was to do with the barns he was working on."
About 20 minutes later, Trust heard Standtrue had been found unresponsive in the paint shop.
Trust said Standtrue was "very capable" as a worker, but also impulsive.
"I would say Sincere's ability to understand instructions was very good. He would get frustrated at work, it would be job-related frustration... Generally, Sincere was a quiet person but when he did get angry he had quite a temper on him.
"He had a long fuse but once he got upset but he was quite explosive."
The inquest previously heard from Standtrue's sister, Rose, who said her brother was subject to beatings, bullying and isolation at Gloriavale.
On Thursday, Stephen Standfast, who is the successor to Overseeing Shepherd Howard Temple, told the inquest he did not have much to do with Standtrue, and was not aware of him being bullied.
Standfast said from his observations of Standtrue, he seemed like a happy person, but a bit immature.
"He was not as aware of social interactions and things like that," he said.
"I did supervise his class for a month or so briefly, and I just saw that that's the way he was, and I just understood that was an effect of him not having the hearing capacity the same as others, little things about his manner would irritate other students."
The inquest heard that at the time of Standtrue's death, in 2018, there were no formal policies in place for child protection and well-being or bullying, harassment and sexual harassment at Gloriavale.
Those policies have since been introduced at the community.
The inquest continues.
