{"id":436394,"date":"2026-05-20T08:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/436394\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T08:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:34:08","slug":"coroners-inquest-begins-into-the-death-of-pastor-helen-verry-who-was-crushed-by-roller-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/436394\/","title":{"rendered":"Coroner\u2019s inquest begins into the death of pastor Helen Verry who was crushed by roller door"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, Verry attended an inquest into his wife\u2019s death asking why she died while working at Church Unlimited in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He also wanted to know why the church\u2019s core values are \u201cpeople are our passion\u201d and \u201cexcellence is our standard\u201d when he says it never serviced or maintained the door that killed his wife or identified it as a hazard.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my prayers was that no stone be left unturned,\u201d he said of the inquest before Coroner <\/a>Janet Anderson, who will determine the cause of death and whether the tragedy could have been prevented.<\/p>\n

A \u2018huge heart\u2019<\/p>\n

Verry began by giving some of his wife\u2019s background, saying she was the baby of the family and her mother\u2019s favourite.<\/p>\n

Her upbringing made her into a strong, independent and confident woman who loved her family, especially her mum, siblings and more than 50 nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n

She was also the younger sister<\/a> of All Black legend Va\u2019aiga \u201cInga the winger\u201d Tuigamala, who died a month after her.<\/p>\n

Verry said his wife was \u201cfull of life\u201d with a \u201chuge heart\u201d and energy that was \u201cso infectious\u201d.<\/p>\n

They started dating in 2013, married two years later, bought their first house in 2020 and the following year she suffered a miscarriage.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was killed before she was able to conceive again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verry said their plans and goals as a couple were \u201cripped away\u201d when she died.<\/p>\n

In her work as a youth pastor, his wife was committed, staying with them if they were unwell in the hospital and spending hours on the phone \u201clistening\u201d to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelen was often the only person in their lives who believed in them. … Such was her heart for youth in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since she died, two of their wh\u0101nau had named babies after Helen and the livestream of her funeral had more than 75,000 views, \u201cyet we know her reach was so much further\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"CoronerCoroner Janet Anderson says the inquest into Helen Verry’s death is to find out why the roller door fell on her, whether the church would have been aware of its danger and to prevent similar deaths. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n

\u2018Smiling and full of joy\u2019 on the day she died<\/p>\n

Verry described the Sunday on January 30, 2022, when his wife died.<\/p>\n

Sunday was a workday for her and the space where she was killed was an area in the Glendene, West Auckland, church that was sometimes used as a bookshop, kids\u2019 playroom or space for extra seating.<\/p>\n

It could be partitioned off by a roller door, which her grieving husband said he had moved up or down using the switch many times before.<\/p>\n

He attended the first service that morning and as he went to say goodbye to his wife, she was talking to a couple of friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe looked at me smiling and full of joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He left and went home. This was the last time he saw her alive.<\/p>\n

The next thing he knew, he was getting calls telling him to come back to the church as the roller door had fallen on her.<\/p>\n

He hopped in his car and started speeding back to church, praying that God would be with her.<\/p>\n

\"HelenHelen Verry was a beloved youth pastor and, before she died, a pastor for young adults. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

When he arrived, emergency services were already there and people were holding up black curtains to conceal his wife\u2019s body while paramedics worked on her.<\/p>\n

Blood was coming out of her ears, back of her head and mouth.<\/p>\n

He held his wife\u2019s hand, telling her he was there and everything would be okay, that she would get through this.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t respond but the heart rate monitor showed a light pulse.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly a couple of minutes later it stopped, she was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he broke down, numb with grief, and then went home and barely slept that night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept wondering: why was she there when this happened? Why did she die?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo men comfort each other at the Church Unlimited after Helen Verry was killed. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward <\/p>\n

Lack of health and safety in church<\/p>\n

Verry remembered his brother-in-law telling him after his wife had died that, in the weeks before the fatal accident, the roller door hadn\u2019t been working.<\/p>\n

He questioned why Church Unlimited\u2019s CEO Tak Bhana had not given a formal statement on his wife\u2019s death when Bhana was actively \u201cinvolved\u201d in the church.<\/p>\n

He had more questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy was the roller door never serviced or maintained since the day of install? … [Or] identified … as being its own hazard? What was the health and safety … plan [at the] time of my wife\u2019s death?\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he understood not much had changed at the church in terms of health and safety protocols four years on from his wife\u2019s death and new measures were still being implemented.<\/p>\n

He said the lack of change was against two of the church\u2019s eight \u201ccore values\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did this take place? Because, if \u2018people are our passion\u2019 and \u2018excellence is our standard\u2019 … if that\u2019s at the core values of how they operate and work then why is health and safety still not taken seriously … [and] still being implemented four and a half years later?\u201d<\/p>\n

One of his prayers was that \u201cno stone was left unturned\u201d during the inquest. <\/p>\n

But seeing the pages of evidence involved, particularly the photos of Helen\u2019s fatal injuries, had brought back the trauma of her death.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as it\u2019s four and a bit years down the track, it\u2019s very much back to day one for me. Back to that day when she was lying there on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inquest continues<\/p>\n

The inquest continued in the afternoon with evidence from Church Unlimited musical director Adrian Robertson, who believed he was the last person to use the roller door before Helen Verry died.<\/p>\n

The inquest is set down until the first week of June and will continue with six more witnesses.<\/p>\n

Parties involved in the inquest include WorkSafe NZ, Church Unlimited and SDL, formally known as Scotty Doors.<\/p>\n

Scotty Doors installed the roller door in 2009 and was ordered to pay more than $200,000<\/a> after Verry\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She\u2019s currently based in Auckland covering justice-related stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today, Verry attended an inquest into his wife\u2019s death asking why she died while working at Church Unlimited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11154,3595,4058,39018,34954,634,181,90934,6259,156,11784,1866,32576,104,13999,296,5978,111,139,69,1118,9010,92024,544,427,1361,223,1961,106954,1455,6736,1299],"class_list":["post-436394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-begins","tag-by","tag-contains","tag-coroners","tag-crushed","tag-death","tag-details","tag-disturbing","tag-door","tag-entertainment","tag-fatal","tag-find","tag-helen","tag-injuries","tag-inquest","tag-into","tag-might","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-pastor","tag-roller","tag-some","tag-story","tag-that","tag-the","tag-this","tag-verry","tag-warning","tag-was","tag-who"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}