The coronial inquest into Mr Sanders’ death in an explosion at his Derrinallum home in April 2014 has painted Mr Sanders as a man refusing the help that was offered to him, effectively shutting himself away behind his locked farm gate.

By November 2013, Mr Sanders had completely disengaged from Camperdown Mental Health Services. His clinical therapist Allan Woodward had left the service in October, and his replacement soon closed Mr Sanders’ case, noting “because risks were not deemed to be elevated, he was closed from case management on December 17, 2013”, according to Mr Woodward.

Leading Senior Constable Paul Avery of Skipton police told the inquest how between November 12, 2012 and October 28, 2013, he built up a good rapport with Mr Sanders.

Mr Sanders regularly called LSC Avery, with the officer saying he felt Mr Sanders trusted him, despite not trusting police and fearing they were going to lock him up.

However that contact stopped after LSC Avery and Leading Senior Constable Scott Simpson of Lismore police visited Mr Sanders’ property on October 28 and confronted him about rumours Mr Sanders was wearing an improvised explosive device (IED) in a bra under his clothing.

At that meeting, Mr Sanders said he “wished people would leave him in peace”.

LSC Avery said that was the last time he saw Mr Sanders alive.

“Mr Sanders stopped ringing (after that),” LSC Avery said.

“Looking back, it might have been … that because I challenged him on (the IED) maybe he decided he didn’t trust me anymore.”

Similarly, LSC Simpson spoke about regular contact with Mr Sanders that slowly dried up. On November 12, LSC Simpson contacted Mr Sanders’ new clinical therapist at Camperdown Mental Health Services to see whether someone else in the public health sector could treat Mr Sanders, given Mr Sanders had indicated he didn’t trust the mental health workers at Camperdown. LSC Simpson was informed that was not possible, and told the inquest he was frustrated by the response.

LSC Simpson also said he offered to accompany mental health workers to Mr Sanders’ property to engage with him, but this offer was not taken up. He also made an offer to Mr Sanders to drive him to see a mental health worker at Warrnambool or Ballarat, but the offer was not taken uup.

But as many people have said during the inquest, no one truly believed Mr Sanders was a threat to himself or anyone else.

“I didn’t expect Glenn to kill himself,” LSC Simpson said.

LSC Avery said that in his numerous conversations with Mr Sanders, there was never any “mention of self harm or suicide”.

Other witnesses at the inquest have spoken about cutting off contact with Mr Sanders, or hearing of other people doing the same thing as his paranoia deepened and his behaviour became more erratic. 

Aside from Mr Sanders’ mother, who was described as “agreeing with everything he said and never contradicting him”, Andrew Breen was the only person who stayed in contact with Mr Sanders until the end, visiting on a monthly or fortnightly basis.

Mr Breen told the inquest he witnessed Mr Sanders smoking a drug presumed to be ice every two hours, as well as drinking heavily. Mr Breen spoke of ringing the local police with his concerns about Mr Sanders, but changing his mind at the last moment, fearful of what would happen if Mr Sanders was challenged, given the fact he was often wearing an IED in a bra.

“I didn’t want to betray his trust and friendship,” Mr Breen said.

“If I called (LSC Simpson) and said ‘you need to get up there (to Mr Sanders’ place)’ then (an explosion) would kill (LSC Simpson) too.

“I really didn’t know what to do.”

Other residents spoke of a similar fear – that if confronted, Mr Sanders may employ his explosive skills, but if he was left alone, nothing would happen as he was not a violent man.

After Mr Sanders’ death, police were dismayed to learn how many people had seen Mr Sanders wearing the IED bra.

Senior Constable Stephanie Rogers of Camperdown police told the inquest officers regularly heard about Mr Sanders’ increasingly bizarre behaviour, including reports of explosions being heard from his property at all hours and strange comments about him believing the CFA spying on him.

In the final year of his life, people in Derrinallum began talking about Mr Sanders wearing the IED bra.

“But it was all hearsay and rumours around the township of Derrinallum,” SC Rogers said.

“We didn’t have any hard evidence or any people wanting to make statements, so there was little we could follow up.”

LSC Simpson agreed.

“There were rumours circulating in Derrinallum that Glenn Sanders was wearing a bra filled with explosives but none of the rumours can be confirmed with any degree of certainty because no one is willing to say they’d seen it,” LSC Simpson said in a statement to the inquest.

After being initially well liked, Mr Sanders became a feared figure in the town following the death of his wife. Mr Sanders was paranoid the Derrinallum community (and indeed anyone and everyone) was out to get him. The reality was far sadder – the Derrinallum community was afraid of him and wanted him to keep his distance. They were fascinated by him, but they were also becoming increasingly scared of him.

Towards the end, Mr Sanders seemed happy for people to keep their distance. He liked to be provocative, the inquest heard. He would drive around with empty explosives boxes in the back of his car. At one point he attached fake rocket launchers to his car roof. His mailbox was shaped like a bomb, and a tank on his property was dressed up to look like a rocket, painted with a nuclear symbol. 

“There were always rumours about (Mr Sanders),” LSC Simpson told the inquest.

“Everyone always wanted to talk about Glenn. They would talk … about explosives, that no one would see him any more, that he was being reclusive. They would ask me if I’d seen him or spoken to him.

“Even after he died there were rumours about him (surviving the explosions and) living in a tunnel and ... that he would come back and destroy the town.”

The explosions at strange hours seemed to have stopped after his explosives licence was cancelled, although there was an incident three months prior to Mr Sanders death involving an explosion at the Derrinallum cemetery that was believed to be his handiwork.

No one in Derrinallum wanted to rock the boat and go on the record to police, possibly out of fear. It seemed that so long as Mr Sanders stayed at his property and didn’t cause any trouble, everything would be okay.