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Gloriavale leaders 'tear apart' families of those who disagree with their rules, founding member says

Tuesday, 6 September 2022

Sharon Ready, a Gloriavale member since its inception, says leaders will do anything to stop those who disagree with them. (File photo).
Sharon Ready, a Gloriavale member since its inception, says leaders will do anything to stop those who disagree with them. (File photo).

Warning: This story discusses details of alleged sexual abuse.

A Gloriavale member “since its inception” says the community’s leaders do everything in their power to “tear apart” families of members who disagree with them.

After decades of service to the community, Sharon Ready was told she must leave her home, job and the West Coast Christian community because of her marriage to Clem Ready, after he decided to leave in 2018.

“If I was to be married to him, I was not allowed to live in the community,” she told an Employment Court hearing in Christchurch on Tuesday.

“It’s not acceptable that you can actually just break and tear families apart.”

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Clem and Sharon Ready are giving evidence on day seven of the Gloriavale Employment Court hearing in Christchurch, where it is alleged young women were subject to “sweat shop-like” work conditions and sexual abuse. (File photo).
Clem and Sharon Ready are giving evidence on day seven of the Gloriavale Employment Court hearing in Christchurch, where it is alleged young women were subject to “sweat shop-like” work conditions and sexual abuse. (File photo).

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Clem Ready, a Gloriavale member of over 40 years, said a “terrible” comment about his dead daughter from a community leader caused him to leave.

Ready’s daughter, Prayer Ready, was the focus of a Stuff Circuit investigation in 2016 after she died choking on a piece of meat while in an isolation room where door handles had been disabled.

“The incident with my Down syndrome daughter hurt me the most,” he said.

Gloriavale leaders are under growing pressure as more of their businesses suffer the consequences of bad publicity about working conditions.

“Prayer Ready died in 2015 … After we buried her, Hopeful (Christian) came up to me and said I could take comfort in the fact she would not be sexually molested by anyone in the community.”

Ready told the Employment Court that the comment left him angry and caused him to lose all respect for the community’s leaders. “I wanted to expose them,” he said.

“I began investigating and found some inappropriate sexual behaviour with underage and vulnerable young women (by leaders and servants). I went to other leaders. They did not take action.”

The Employment Court case is centred around six women arguing they should have been recognised as employees, not volunteers for the domestic work they did for years at the religious sect.

Ready joined the community in 1974, aged 19. Shortly after he married Sharon, who had been in the community since she was 15, and the couple had 13 children together.

The couple have 72 grandchildren, 35 of whom still live in Gloriavale.

Five of their own children also still living in the community.

Ready said the sexual attitude towards his wife and daughters by leaders was deeply concerning.

Men had limited ability to control themselves sexually and any succumbing to temptation was primarily the woman’s fault, Ready said he was told by leaders.

“I did not agree, and if he (Hopeful Christian) knew, he would bully you and make your life miserable. This led to him being convicted and spending time in prison.”

Virginia Courage and John Ready outside court as Liz Gregory from the Gloriavale Leavers
Virginia Courage and John Ready outside court as Liz Gregory from the Gloriavale Leavers' Trust watches on. (Still from the documentary film Gloriavale by film-makers Noel Smyth and Fergus Grady.)

Ready said he became depressed and left Gloriavale in 2018. Eighteen months later, he wanted to reunite with his wife and attempted to re-join.

In a meeting with leaders in May 2020, Ready said he was bullied by Howard Temple.

“He stood directly in front of me, trying to intimidate me. I stood up in front of him and said, ‘Be nice to me and I’ll be nice to you. Be nasty to me, I’ll be nasty right back.’

“They knew I was concerned with sexual behaviour in the community, I just had no idea how prevalent it was.”

In 2016, Ready was charged in the district court and pleaded guilty to assaulting two of his young daughters with a shoe and a belt over a 13-year period.

On Tuesday, he said the charges were a “huge revelation”, having previously believed corporal punishment was appropriate for misbehaving children.

“I had zero emotional intelligence.”

Questioning Ready, Gloriavale’s lawyer Phillip Skelton, QC, asked him: “Are you really going to suggest to this court that it was a tenet of the community to assault your child with a weapon?”

“I’m not suggesting it, I’m saying it’s a fact,” Ready responded.

On Monday, Virginia Courage told the court she was verbally attacked by the community’s leaders in a late-night meeting for over an hour for accepting a phone call from her brother at a time she was heavily pregnant.

Gloriavale leaders deny claims the women were employees.

The case continues.

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