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For two days, Alec Meikle thought he had the best job in the world.
But on day three, that changed.
From that moment on, Alec was allegedly subject to relentless bullying from both his supervisor and other work-mates at Downer EDI in Bathurst, where he had been employed as an apprentice.
An inquest into Alec’s death, being heard before deputy state coroner Paul MacMahon yesterday, heard Alec was called a “[expletive] useless [expletive]” on a daily basis.
Alec’s father, Richard Meikle, gave evidence, telling of his son’s torment.
Mr Meikle said when his son took the position with EDI he was both happy and excited.
“He was very pleased. He’d started a journey and worked very hard to get there,” Mr Meikle said.
But by March 2008, Alec’s demeanour had changed.
“He started acting differently,” Mr Meikle said, with Alec becoming withdrawn from his family.
“He changed more in those seven months then in all the years,” he said.
The inquest was told in May 2008, Alec opened up to his father and told him what had been going on.
“It was so out of control, he turned to me to see what could be done,” he said.
Mr Meikle said what Alec told him was appalling.
Mr Meikle told the inquest Alec allegedly suffered verbal abuse on a daily basis, being called a “[expletive] useless [expletive]”.
Mr Meikle said Alec’s supervisor Colin Wiggins was the instigator and main aggressor, with Ben Eagle another culprit.
Mr Meikle said he gave his son some advice about dealing with people in the workforce who put you down and advised him to mirror their comments back to them.
“I told him to rubbish Ben’s [Eagle] work and Ben backed off.
“But it didn’t work with Colin. I remember one story when Alec gave it right back to Colin, and Alec said Colin went quiet.”
Mr Meikle said Alec thought that, like Ben, it had worked with Colin Wiggins.
“But then Colin came back with a couple of his mates and gave Alec a really hard time.
“You couldn’t do it to Colin, he was too evil,” Mr Meikle said, adding that part of what happened was “quite upsetting” for Alec to tell his father.
The hearing continues today.