Brethren ‘clean up’ fatal crash
Passers-by assisting the injured were ‘pushed out of the way’ as Exclusive Brethren church members swarmed over the scene. Meanwhile the distressed driver had walked off, leaving his teen daughter dying on the side of the road. Bevan Hurley reports.
Stephen Frood arrived to find a scene of utter devastation. A Toyota Hilux driven by Russell Stewart, carrying nine members of the Exclusive Brethren church, had crashed into a tree near an intersection 10km east of Dargaville, in Northland.
Frood, a farmer, had heard the sound of ‘‘crunching metal’’ while he was having dinner with his family and rushed outside. He found a woman asking for help and saw survivors strewn across the road.
Then he came across two bodies inside the ute cab: Stewart’s wife Susanna and a family friend, James Wearmouth, 18.
Frood saw a man in a puffer jacket on the phone – he presumed to emergency services. ‘‘You need to call 111. I asked ‘who are you calling?’ He replied ‘Family members’.’’
Frood then called 111.
A police log from the National Inquiry Database shows Frood’s call was the first time emergency services were notified.
However, a Brethren spokesman said the first call made by the ‘‘man in the puffer jacket’’ was to police.
Within minutes the area was ‘‘swarming’’ with Exclusive Brethren, who Frood believed appeared to be involved in a ‘‘clean-up’’ operation before police arrived.
Russell Stewart had already left the scene, later saying he had blacked out.
His daughter Sadie would draw her last breath in the arms of an emergency services worker around 50 minutes after the crash.
Fresh details of the June 6, 2016 crash have emerged through the police log, photographs taken on the night and witness statements, which have been released under the Official Information Act.
Stewart was initially charged with driving with excess blood alcohol, careless driving causing death, careless driving causing injury, and leaving the scene of the crash. Just before trial, he pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death and careless driving causing injury.
He was sentenced to four months’ community detention, with one year’s supervision.
At the Whangarei District Court sentencing, Crown solicitor Kyle MacNeill said a ‘‘veil of silence’’ had descended: there there had been no cooperation with the police investigation from any church members.
The Exclusive Brethren is a Christian sect that has rebranded as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. Its members will not eat with outsiders, or communicate except to do business with them – or sometimes, to lobby conservative politicians.
On the afternoon of the crash, three carloads of members of the Exclusive Brethren had been enjoying a barbecue at Baylys Beach.
Joseph Ranginui, who was surfcasting at the beach that day, described two utes that appeared to be ‘‘racing’’ despite carrying passengers in the back trays.
Three kilometres away, Frood was sitting down to dinner with his wife and daughter when he heard the crash.
He ran out of his home to find a woman asking for help, and another man in a puffer jacket on the phone.
Frood, in his police witness statement, said he overheard a conversation between the man in the puffer jacket and the other woman he had seen earlier.
‘‘She told him: ‘Tell the truth. Don’t say something that hasn’t happened.’ I didn’t know what they were talking about.’’
It appeared there was an action plan in place, he said, and that action plan didn’t involve emergency services.
Minutes later, several carloads of church members showed up. ‘‘All of a sudden the scene was crowded with people; people from the Brethren community. They began moving the injured passengers and speaking with them secretly.
‘‘I had the feeling that they wanted to come and clean up the mess, and keep it a secret. I responded by telling people to leave the injured ones alone, as they could be hurt unnecessarily.
‘‘People swarmed over the car, and they wanted to remove the fuses to stop the alarm. I thought it was a strange thing to worry about.
‘‘I had the uncanny feeling that they wanted to switch the driver. There were whispers and discussions happening amongst several groups, and I could tell something was amiss.
‘‘I spoke to a police officer and told him the driver’s name was Russell. I felt compelled to tell the police because I was worried that there was going to be a switch or a cover-up.’’
Soon afterwards, local resident Deborah May Martin arrived with her two granddaughters and began helping the injured, covering their shivering bodies with their jackets.
She also identified the man wearing the puffer jacket, and noticed him trying to move one of the injured passengers, a young man she’d been nursing called George.
‘‘I told the man ‘you shouldn’t be moving George! You could hurt him more!’
‘‘The man just looked at me and continued rolling George over. When the man finished moving George, he got to his feet and moved a short distance away. I assisted by placing George in the recovery position.
‘‘I saw the Brethren people move into the crash scene and before I knew it we were pushed out of the way.’’
St John Ambulance volunteer Genea Evans came across the crash on her way to work. She found Sadie Stewart breathing heavily, and unresponsive.
Fire Service staff were ready to try to cut Sadie from the vehicle, but Evans and a doctor established her injuries were not survivable.
‘‘Brethren women gathered around me and approached me, they were watching. They then questioned me. It was rude the way they approached me. They were forceful in their questioning and it was quite confronting.’’
Meanwhile, Stewart had walked more than 2km to a restaurant, where he was spoken to by police at about 8.28pm.
In a statement to police, Stewart said he had blacked out. ‘‘One thing I was going along fine, the next thing there was a shower of stones, that was it.’’
He smiled as he reportedly said: ‘‘They’re with God now, and they’re there before me.’’
Stewart’s defence team of three fulltime lawyers found a dozen worldleading experts to probe the evidence. A pathologist from the US was called in to test the findings of the Whangarei pathologist. An overseas crash analyst examined the ute several times. Stewart travelled overseas to visit neuroscientists. It’s estimated his legal bill would have been more than a million dollars.
On the eve of the trial, the Crown decided to withdraw the more serious charges of driving with excess breath alcohol and leaving the scene.
A spokesman for the church, Doug Watt, said yesterday: ‘‘This matter has been fully dealt with through the courts including the tendering of police witness statements and to suggest matters have been overlooked is a slight on the professionalism of our emergency services and judiciary.
‘‘We would also point out that from the tenor of your emailed questions it appears that you are trying to use selected excerpts of material to cast the church and its members in a bad light.
‘‘The statements you have provided are, from the best of our knowledge either completely untrue or misleading, for example, the first person who arrived at the accident (the one in puffer jacket) has confirmed that the first call he made was to 111.’’
They’re with God now, and they’re there before me.
Russell Stewart, to police