Mother must have hurt twins - Kahui

Chris Kahui gives evidence at the inquest into the deaths of his three-month-old twin sons Chris and Cru, inset, who died of severe head injuries in 2006. Photos / NZPA, supplied

Chris Kahui has told the inquest into the deaths of his three-month-old twin sons that their mother Macsyna King must have injured them.

But Mr Kahui, who has taken the stand for the first time to give evidence about the twins' deaths in 2006 at a coronor's inquest in Auckland, has changed his mind about why he believes his former partner is responsible.

The reasons why he changed his mind have been suppressed by coroner Garry Evans until tomorrow morning.

Mr Kahui was charged with the boys' murders and was acquitted at the High Court in Auckland in 2008.

Mr Evans, attempting to clarify that Mr Kahui believed his former partner was responsible for the boys' fatal injuries, today asked him: "What you now say in this court is that Macsyna must have caused the injuries to the children - that's what you say, don't you?"

Mr Kahui replied: "Yes."

Mr Kahui said he welcomed the inquest because he wanted answers about how his sons met their violent death.

Police lawyer Simon Mount said during his trial, Ms King's brother, Stewart, said Mr Kahui had talked about handing himself in several times to end everyone's hurt and to "make it go away".

Mr Kahui had told him he wanted to take the blame for the twins' deaths so his other son, Shayne, and the twins' six-month-old cousin, Cayenne, could come home, as they had been taken into CYFs care when the twins were in hospital.

Mr Kahui said everything he said in his statement was true and he did not make any changes.

Earlier today, Mr Kahui said he had never done anything to hurt his children.

He said he had never hit them, hurt them or shaken them in any way.

Mr Kahui said he thought his then partner Ms King must have caused their fatal injuries.

"I have never done anything to hurt my children. I never asked Macsyna if she did it. I didn't do it so I thought she must have."

Mr Kahui denied he had ever used methamphetamine or cannabis, but admitted to occasionally drinking alcohol.

Mr Kahui told the hearing he was spending most of his days and nights in hospital with his ill mother while Ms King looked after the twins.

"Macsyna was talking about being really stressed and needing time out," Mr Kahui said in a statement read by his lawyer, Chris Wilkinson-Smith.

He said he now knows how important it is to determine when the last time the twins were fed was.

During his police interviews before his arrest in 2006, Mr Kahui said he had fed the babies while Ms King was away with her sister.

Mr Kahui did not give evidence in his own defence then, leaving prosecution and defence lawyers to rely on three statements he had made earlier to police about the June 2006 killings.

In one, he said both Chris and Cru had fed normally after his former partner Macsyna King left the house to spend time with her sister.

However, he told the coroner's court today that the twins did not feed properly on the night that the police believe they received their fatal injuries.

"They just seemed to sleep and that didn't worry me," Mr Kahui said.

He said baby Cru stopped breathing, which "freaked me out".

"I just wanted Macsyna to come home and tell me what we needed to do about an ambulance, but I wanted Macsyna first," Mr Kahui said.

He said he spent the night sleeping on a sofa in the nursery so he could monitor Cru's breathing and in the morning went to the shops to get some baby formula.

"When I got home Macsyna was back. I was mad at her because she stayed out all night," Mr Kahui said.

He said Ms King took the babies to hospital as she had done when they had bronchitis. Mr Kahui said he didn't think anything serious was wrong and thought, since Macsyna had been out all night, it was her turn to look after the twins.

Mother 'received death threats'

Earlier today, Ms King told the hearing she did not know how the twins both sustained fractured ribs in the 14 days before they died, and that she received death threats after they were hospitalised.

Macsyna King told a coronial inquest in Auckland into the boys' deaths she had "no explanation" for the rib injuries.

Coroner Garry Evans asked her how her babies could have these older rib injuries, as well as severe head injuries, which resulted in their deaths.

Ms King repeatedly said she did not know how they got these injuries.

"If I knew there was anything wrong with them I would have taken them to the doctors or hospital," she said.

She said the twins were "fragile", but denied she had ever shaken them.

Ms King said she feared for her safety after receiving letters and death threats in the mail box, after the twins were admitted to hospital.

Father's reaction

Chris Kahui said "whatever" and hung up when Macsyna King asked him to come to the hospital where the couple's twins were in a critical condition, Ms King told the inquest earlier today.

She said when she got to hospital with the twins they were taken straight into an operating theatre.

She said she phoned Mr Kahui at home to tell him "it is critical, it's really bad".

Ms King said medical staff asked her if the twins had been dropped on their heads.

She said she repeatedly called Mr Kahui on her cellphone and asked him to come to hospital.

"I asked him if he could please come to the hospital and be beside me and the boys," Ms King said. "I'm crying on the phone, asking him to get there and I can't honestly remember what he said."

She said Mr Kahui was "whanau-oriented" and was only a 10 minute drive away but still he did not come.

"I was asking, I wasn't being very nice: 'Can you hurry up and get your ass here?' And I think he said: 'Whatever' and hung up the phone," Ms King said.

She earlier described to the court taking the babies to their family doctor, Gopinath Nayar, who examined them.

Coroner Garry Evans asked Ms King if the doctor said to take the babies immediately to hospital.

"Dr Nayar didn't say to me something specific... he said he didn't say he was really worried or there was any danger," Ms King said.

She said Chris drove the three to the chemist where Ms King bought dummies and nappies before going home to get Cru's antibiotics.

But Ms King said Mr Kahui did not want to go to the hospital and the two began to have a fight in the car.

"I said: You f'n c***, you hurt my babies," Ms King said.

She said Mr Kahui had said the injuries to the babies must have been caused by their older son Shayne who was 13 months old at the time.

"Not at any time did Chris say that he had done something to the boys," Ms King said.

Mother explains why didn't return home

Giving evidence yesterday, Ms King wept as she explained why she did not return home immediately after hearing one of her baby twins was having trouble breathing.

She has given evidence that she was with her sister Emily on the afternoon and evening of June 12, 2006, when police say the fatal injuries were inflicted.

The pair had gone to visit a friend of Emily's in West Auckland before returning to Emily's Papakura home, where Ms King slept the night.

She said she was told by her sister when waking about 7am that Cru had held his breath the previous night, causing Mr Kahui's sister and brother to seek her out at the Papakura address.

But instead of rushing back, she stayed at Emily's home and then dropped her sister off at work in Mt Wellington before returning to her Mangere home.

Coroner Garry Evans asked why she did not go back sooner, or phone home to find out what was happening, saying it appeared to be extraordinary.

"I guess I expected Chris to know and deal with the situation from our personal experience with nurses and doctors," she said.

"I can only - I did not know how severe that was. I simply didn't think that it was that bad."

Ms King also explained why she told two female police officers she did not want to speak to them on the day she first took the twins to hospital with critical injuries.

She said she had been at the hospital for 15 minutes and was emotional as she had been informed the twins were gravely ill.

"I was in no way in a reasonable state to be able to speak with them, let alone explain what happened to my sons."

Ms King denied causing the injuries that led to the babies' death.