A former Glorivale member who still resides in the isolated West Coast community has given emotional evidence about how, among the things he witnessed in the Christian commune, his daughter's death hurt him the most.
Clem Ready was giving evidence during an Employment Court hearing on Tuesday that is examining the role of women in Gloriavale.
Clem and his wife Sharon are devout Christians who've been married for more than four decades.
Clem said he followed the lead of Gloriavale shepherds, disciplining his children physically - until he was convicted of assaulting them.
"One of my daughters who left the community and was upset with what I did. I was charged. I have come to accept my behaviour was wrong and hurt my family, this was a turning point in my life."
Clem said the conviction made him reassess life inside Gloriavale.
"What the males were practising in the community did not sit well with me ... This related to the sexual attitude towards my wife and daughters."
But the behaviour surrounding his daughter Prayer's death was what hurt him the most.
"After we buried her, Hopeful came up to me and said I could take comfort in the fact that she now could not be sexually molested by anyone in the community. His attitude shook me," Clem said.
It shook him so much that he left the community for 18 months.
He said during that time, the prevalence of sexual offending inside the commune hit him like an avalanche.
"The young single women are deliberately uneducated. They are groomed from birth to be married. They are to submit, to provide unlimited sex to their husbands, to become pregnant, to become mothers of many children."
And also to work.
"They are indoctrinated to be cheap sweatshop labour, underpinning the whole financial structure of the community," Clem said.
Clem's daughter and granddaughter are among a group of women arguing they were employees and not volunteers at Gloriavale.
When his wife Sharon took the stand, she echoed her husband's evidence.
"Girls are always told they are to blame if there is any sexually inappropriate behaviour, regardless of whether they wanted it or not," she said.
The 66-year-old mother of 13 lived and worked in the commune for decades - her daughters too.
And whether it was as volunteers or employees, Sharon said they always came home from work exhausted.
