The scene of a crash in which three members of the Exclusive Brethren church died at Baylys Coast Rd, Northland in June 2016.

Stephen Frood arrived to find a scene of utter devastation. A ute driven by Russell Stewart carrying nine members of the Exclusive Brethren church had crashed into a tree near the intersection of Baylys Coast Rd and Baylys Basin Rd, 10km east of Dargaville, in Northland.

Frood 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 dark double cab ute: Russell 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'."

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Frood then called 111.

A police log from the National Inquiry Database shows Frood's call was the first time emergency services were notified – evidence that the church rejects. A Brethren spokesman disputed this, and said the first call made by the "man in the puffer jacket" was to police.

Sadie Stewart, 16, James Wearmouth, 18, and Susanna Stewart, 48, died when the ute smashed into a tree.

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 service worker around 50 minutes after the crash.

'VEIL OF SILENCE'

Fresh details of the crash on 6 June 2016 have emerged through witness statements, the police log and photographs taken on the night, which have been released under the Official Information Act.

Stewart was initially charged with driving with excess blood alcohol, careless driving causing death and careless driving causing injury, and leaving the scene of the crash. Just before the trial was due to start, he pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death and careless driving causing injury.

He was sentenced to four months' community detention, with one year supervision.

NZ POLICE A bloodied and bruised Russell Stewart, photographed by police, shortly after he left the scene of the fatal accident.

At the Whangarei District Court sentencing, Crown solicitor Kyle MacNeill said a "veil of silence" had descended over everyone involved. There had been no cooperation with the police investigation from any church members.

The Exclusive Brethren is a Christian-based religious sect that has rebranded as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. Former members claim it is a cult.

Led by multimillionaire Sydney businessman Bruce D. Hales, it is claimed to hide from public scrutiny. Its members will not eat, form friendships or communicate with outsiders, except to do business with them – or in some countries to lobby conservative politicians.

Bruce Hales is the worldwide leader of the Exclusive Brethren, pictured with his wife Jennifer.

On the afternoon of the crash, three carloads of members of the Exclusive Brethren had been enjoying a barbecue at Baylys Beach. They'd built a camp fire and a bivouac.

One passerby recalled to police later: "It was the type of gathering that I would have liked to have been a part of. I wanted to invite ourselves but I knew it would not have been appropriate to ask."

Joseph Ranginui was surfcasting at the beach that day. After getting his mate's car stuck, and then pulled out of the soft sand, he noticed two utes driving in convoy at a speed of 60 to 70kmh.

One of them matched the description of Russell Stewart's ute.

BUD HAUSER Exclusive Brethren members had a barbecue at Baylys Beach before the fatal crash.

"They appeared to be racing. They were almost side by side, and I could hear their engines revving up. Their driving wasn't usual for the beach. It was unsafe, especially with people sitting in the back trays of the ute," Ranginui told police.

"In my opinion I believe that this is too quick for the area where they were driving. Both were carrying children in the back tray."

Ranginui noticed the cars leave the Poutu Point end of the beach at around 4.45pm.

'TELL THE TRUTH'

Two hours later, and three kilometres away, farmer Stephen 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 wearing the puffer jacket and the other women 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.

NZ POLICE The scene of the accident.

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 shivering bodies with their jackets as winter's night fell.

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."

Russell Stewart and late wife Susanna.

'THEY'RE WITH GOD NOW'

St John volunteer ambulance staffer Genea Evans came across the crash on her way to work. She told how she found a fatally injured Sadie Stewart at the scene, breathing heavily and deeply, and unresponsive.

Fire service staff were ready to try to cut Sadie from the vehicle, but Evans and another doctor established her injuries were unsurvivable. After confirming she had passed away, Evans placed a sheet over Sadie.

"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.



"They said, 'She's alive, she was alive. She was breathing. What are you doing? She's not dead.' "

Evans helped other injured survivors onto ambulances and rescue helicopters.

NZ POLICE An excerpt from a police interview Russell Stewart gave to police a few hours after the fatal crash that killed his wife, daughter and a family friend.

Meanwhile, the driver, Russell Stewart, had left the scene and walked more than 2km along Baylys Coast Rd to Sharkys Restaurant, where he was spoken to by police at about 8.28pm.

In a statement given to Constable Reuben Cohen, he said he had blacked out.

"That's the thing, I just don't remember," he told Cohen. "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."

At court, Stewart denied all charges and the case was set down for trial in Whangarei.

Three defence lawyers were employed fulltime on the case. Stewart's defence team found a dozen world-leading experts to probe the evidence. A pathologist from the United States 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 to undergo testing to back up the defence that he had blacked out.

In a remarkable coincidence, his late wife's sister, Sarah Joy Mitchell, had charges of causing a fatal crash dismissed just days after the crash after a judge found she suffered from a dissociative disorder causing her to "white out".

It's estimated Stewart's legal bill would have cost in excess of $1 million.

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.

Forty-nine character references were provided to the court, which described Stewart as a hard-working, strong family man.

A spokesman for the church, Doug Watt, said on Saturday: "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."