Dying twins' father tried to hide - mother

Macsyna King said she wanted her husband at the hospital with her and their sons. Photo / Dean Purcell

Chris Kahui was trying to hide when he refused to visit his fatally injured sons in hospital, the mother of the boys told a court yesterday.

Macsyna King gave evidence at the coroner's inquest into the death of her twins in Auckland.

Chris and Cru Kahui were taken to hospital by their mother in June, 2006. They were found to have brain trauma injuries and later died.

Mr Kahui was charged with the murder of his twins, and was found not guilty after a High Court trial in May, 2008.

Ms King said she phoned her partner repeatedly from hospital after he refused to come.

"The first I remember him ... telling ... is that Chris had left the nursery door open and that Shayne had got on to our sons who were left on the couch. He just kept saying he didn't know."

Shayne, their son, was 13 months old at the time. Ms King said he could only "shuffle on his bum" and could not have climbed on to the couch.

She said she became frustrated and swore at Mr Kahui, who hung up on her on one occasion.

"When I spoke to Chris on the phone, I told him I wanted him to come to hospital, beside me and our sons. I told him to get his arse up to the hospital now," Ms King said, wiping away tears.

Coroner Garry Evans asked why she thought Mr Kahui had refused to come to hospital.

At the time she thought he was being selfish, Ms King replied. Asked if she had thought about it since, she said he was trying to hide.

Ms King said she left the house to go to her sister's on the night before the police say the twins were fatally assaulted.

She said she needed some "time out" and conceded to Mr Evans that she was tired.

She travelled with her sister, Emily, to West Auckland where they spent the evening at a friend's place before driving to Papakura to sleep at her sister's home.

Ms King said she did not go back to the family home in Mangere where Mr Kahui was caring for the twins.

Lawyers for Mr Kahui said at the trial that a cellphone call to Emily's phone was routed through a cellphone tower in Mangere and therefore put Macsyna in the area of the family home.

Ms King had told the trial that she was in Henderson, but changed that evidence at the inquest yesterday.

She said her sister's phone rang while they were driving and she had answered it. But Ms King said the pair at no time went to Mangere.

Under cross-examination by Mr Kahui's lawyer, Ms King confirmed she had enrolled in an anger management course one month before the twins were fatally assaulted.

She wanted to work out "why I kept feeling so many emotions, why I could not communicate it clearly and explain my emotions".

However, Ms King said, she did not attend any sessions.

She also told the inquest that she had never harmed her sons.

Mr Evans asked if there was any truth to an alleged confession Ms King made to her former partner, Eru Tuari, in which she is alleged to have said: "Chris didn't do it" and "I did it".

"No I have not said that to him or anyone else," Ms King said. "And I have no idea why he would say that."

Mr Evans told the inquest at the start of the week that he did not plan to call Mr Tuari as a witness but changed his mind after legal arguments yesterday. The subject of the argument cannot be reported because of a suppression order.