{"id":438109,"date":"2026-05-21T09:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T09:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/438109\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T09:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T09:19:08","slug":"church-unlimited-inquest-pastor-recalls-moment-roller-door-killed-helen-verry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/438109\/","title":{"rendered":"Church Unlimited inquest: Pastor recalls moment roller door killed Helen Verry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Because of her administrative skills, a grieving Woollett was put in charge of the church\u2019s response to Verry\u2019s 2022 death at Church Unlimited<\/a> in Glendene, West Auckland.<\/p>\n

She responded to criticism of the church\u2019s health and safety practices, before and after the fatal accident, a coroner\u2019s inquest heard<\/a> today.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindsight is wonderful,\u201d she said. \u201cWe could have done a lot better in managing the aftermath and investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we were … grieving we were in shock … I fully admit there has been some areas we did not see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pastor explains<\/p>\n

Yesterday afternoon, Woollett began her evidence at the inquest by saying she was appointed the church\u2019s response co-ordinator to a WorkSafe NZ investigation into Verry\u2019s workplace death.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the inquest also heard an emotional statement from Verry\u2019s husband Tim Verry, who questioned why the West Auckland church had not identified the 230kg door as a hazard.<\/p>\n

He claimed the church still did not have adequate health and safety protocols in place four and a half years later after his wife\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Continuing her evidence today, Woollett said there were regular maintenance and safety checks of the church\u2019s auditoriums and grounds before Verry\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

She said at no time before the accident did she or other church staff identify the door as a hazard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that we weren\u2019t assessing risks, we just didn\u2019t see this one in that way.\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

They were also relying on people coming to them and telling them if something wasn\u2019t right, she said, and no one had done that in relation to the door.<\/p>\n

In response to criticism of the lack of change after the accident, she said the church now had more robust health and safety induction systems.<\/p>\n

But it was a large and growing organisation with hundreds of transient volunteers, and it was hard to get a handle on, she said.<\/p>\n

The church was constantly looking to improve.<\/p>\n

\u2018Why, why, why?\u2019<\/p>\n

Woollett was questioned at the hearing by James Cairney, the lawyer for roller door manufacturer and installer SDL.<\/p>\n

After Verry\u2019s death, SDL, formally known as Scotty Doors, was prosecuted by WorkSafe NZ in 2024 for its unsafe installation of the roller door and ordered to pay more than $200,000 in fines and reparation.<\/a><\/p>\n

Cairney asked whether Woollett was able to be critical of the church in her investigation of the 2022 accident.<\/p>\n

She said she believed the church had an open mind and after the tragedy, all of the staff were asking \u201cwhy, why, why?\u201d and questioning themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom day one, people were already saying, \u2018did I do it?\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That was what guided her in the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cRightly or wrongly, I wanted to protect my people [from] the pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Cairney further questioned the quality of her investigation or response, Woollett said she and all the staff were more suited to ministerial tasks and the legal and investigative elements were out of their league.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt what point is health and safety becoming draconian and inoperable? … We had a bleeding church; we had a bleeding staff. Where\u2019s the ministerial side?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

They were not perfect and did some things wrong, but they also did some things right, Woollett said.<\/p>\n

The church\u2019s lawyer, Eleanor Harrison, asked Woollett about the criticisms she had heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you have any background in policing?\u201d Harrison asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Woollett responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny training in criminal investigation?\u201d Harrison continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she responded. <\/p>\n

\u201cRight,\u201d the lawyer concluded.<\/p>\n

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

\u2018Overhead mouse traps\u2019<\/p>\n

The inquest then heard from Warren Blackwood, the project manager for Skyward Construction, which contracted Scotty Doors to install the door in 2009.<\/p>\n

He continues to work in industrial construction and contracts hundreds of roller doors to be installed each year.<\/p>\n

Blackwood was asked whether doors of this type needed maintenance from clients, such as the church.<\/p>\n

He said not really, apart from dusting for aesthetic reasons.<\/p>\n

When asked if his company would ever tend to the doors, he said they \u201cnever touch them\u201d and he leaves that job to the contractors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re overhead mouse traps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last to use the door<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the inquest heard from Church Unlimited musical director Adrian Robertson, who believed he was the last person to use the roller door before Verry\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Every year, Robertson sets up the Christmas decorations for the church with the help of volunteers.<\/p>\n

Before Christmas 2021, Robertson and his helpers set up a special drive-thru Christmas window to be viewed safely during Auckland\u2019s Covid-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n

He and his team attached drapes and fairy lights to the raised roller door and three weeks before Verry died, they came in to pull them down.<\/p>\n

He said the door functioned normally and he didn\u2019t notice anything different about it.<\/p>\n

The inquest continues.<\/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":"Because of her administrative skills, a grieving Woollett was put in charge of the church\u2019s response to Verry\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12897,4058,181,90934,6259,11784,1866,32576,104,13999,3375,5978,4505,111,43,139,69,9010,29541,92024,544,427,1361,1961,80797,106954,1455],"class_list":["post-438109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-church","tag-contains","tag-details","tag-disturbing","tag-door","tag-fatal","tag-find","tag-helen","tag-injuries","tag-inquest","tag-killed","tag-might","tag-moment","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pastor","tag-recalls","tag-roller","tag-some","tag-story","tag-that","tag-this","tag-unlimited","tag-verry","tag-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438109","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=438109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}