Family push for new inquest
Family members of a teenage girl with Down syndrome who died in strange circumstances at Gloriavale have asked the Solicitor-General to order an inquest into her death.
Prayer Ready, 14, was the focus of a Stuff investigation in 2016 into her death from asphyxiation after she choked on a piece of meat while in an isolation room with disabled door handles.
Stuff Circuit has learned police have contacted the family to ask fresh questions about the events.
Coroner Marcus Elliott did not hold an inquest, but visited the isolated Christian community to investigate.
In his findings, he said: ‘‘Prayer was a much-loved member of the Gloriavale community. Her death was a tragic accident. It did not result from any want of care on the part of her family or Gloriavale.’’
But, dissatisfied with that outcome, members of Prayer’s family – her aunt Ruth Green, her sister Connie Ready and her brother David Ready – have written to Solicitor-General Una Jagose asking that an inquest be ordered under the Coroner’s Act, which allows for further inquiry if there’s sufficient reason.
Coroner Elliott was shown the isolation room where Prayer had died, and concluded: ‘‘The handle of the door to the room in which Prayer died was disabled. This meant it was not possible to enter or exit through the door at the time. However, a window in the room provided a point of access through which a number of people came to attempt to assist Prayer when she was choking. The fact that the door was disabled did not contribute to her death in any way.’’
In the letter, Ruth Green has alleged the testimony given to the Coroner by her sister Sharon – Prayer’s mother – was manipulated. Green also told Stuff Circuit that ‘‘not only was Prayer’s death avoidable, any responsibility for the leaders’ decisions that contributed to her death, was covered up.’’