A Gloriavale leaver told the Employment Court the plight of women who remain in the community is of serious concern to him, both because of unwanted touching and an unsustainable workload with pressure from the leaders.
John Ready said if the women stopped working, Gloriavale would cease to operate and they are more important to the running of the community than the leaders.
Ready is thankful for his 11 children - but resents the environment they grew up in.
He recalled the meeting where he sat quietly while his teenage daughter was kicked out.
"I would just so love to go back and be there again and have an opportunity to redeem myself as a father and just sort of stand up and put those guys in check, the ones that were misbehaving, their spirit was completely and utterly… Ugly," Ready said.
He told the court Gloriavale women have little education or career prospects. The best they could hope for was to have a husband chosen for them and to produce babies at the accepted rate.
One of his daughters has epilepsy and brain damage but the culture at Gloriavale didn't allow for her condition.
She once had a seizure while carrying a heavy load and fell down the stairs, during another seizure while working she was badly burnt.
"She had a third-degree burn on her shoulder and no one was aware of it," Ready said.
He worked long hours managing a dairy farm at Gloriavale but said the women's work output was far greater than his.
"The girls' work is incredible. I mean, as a farmer, I only felt good about my work output during calving, compared with the single girls," Ready said. "I thought at least I'm equal with a single girl, but that only lasts six to eight weeks, these girls just keep it up continually."
Ready also said his eldest daughter Unity complained about serving Howard Temple's table because he continually touched her legs, but as her Dad, he was powerless to do anything about it.
Unity was expelled in the end for continuing to question the leaders.
Then came Ready's turn, also called to a meeting with the leaders, he said he can't begin to explain the pressure and fear.
He too was forced out.
"It was just terrible, just terrible," he said. "How did they have the authority to separate me from my wife and children."
Gloriavale's lawyer questioned whether it was his own choice to have each of his 11 children.
"It was my choice but it was also what I was trained to do," Ready replied.
Ready said he was never a volunteer at Gloriavale, no one is.
He's now a dairy farmer, near Timaru.
