A new witness claims she was told Lachie Jones' half-brother threw the young boy into the pond in which he was found. Image / NZME
The half-brother of Lachie Jones has again denied allegations of his involvement in the toddler’s death.
On January 29, 2019, Lachie was found dead late in the evening, face up in a council oxidation pond 1.2km from his home in Gore, Southland.
Initial police investigations concluded the boy drowned, though his father has long believed Lachie was murdered.
An inquest into the boy’s death entered its second phase last week at the Invercargill District Court.
Earlier in the day, the inquest heard from a witness who claims she was told by her friend Tyler Tremaine that Jonathan Scott, Lachie’s half-brother, told him he had thrown the boy in the pond.
The witness told the inquest the exchange happened around two weeks after Lachie’s death when Tremaine visited her to drop off a “bag of weed”.
“We started having a sesh [sic], and then I brought up Johnny’s brother, because I knew that Johnny and Tyler were close ... and that’s when he proceeded about saying it,” she told the inquest.
“When you get told something like that, you’re mind-blown ... I can’t recall the date, it was really close to Lachlan’s death.”
On May 6 this year, the witness took a screen shot of a text exchange between herself and Tremaine, where Tremaine appears to confirm recalling telling the witness he was told Lachie had been thrown in the pond by Johnny.
Police counsel Robin Bates questioned the witness on her history with methamphetamine and “unsatisfactory” dealings with the police, which she said were a factor in her not coming forward earlier, though the primary factor was her lack of physical evidence.
She told the inquest her general state of mind in terms of substance abuse was “completely fine”.
“I was sobering up, I had a good mindset.”
The witness became upset when Bates questioned her on her police statement in which she stated she was struggling with substance abuse at the time, and the court was adjourned.
Following the adjournment, counsel for the coroner, Simon Mount, KC, began cross-examination of the witness.
The witness told the inquest she spent a portion of her childhood growing up with Johnny and Cameron Scott and told the inquest of an incident where, as children, the pair allegedly dragged her 1.5km to a nearby river before her mother intervened.
The witness told the inquest that at the time of the text exchange, she was required to make daily reports to the Gore police station and was in the station to make her report when Tremaine texted her. Following the exchange, she immediately handed her phone to the police.
She acknowledged this took place during the first phase of the inquest, and she was aware of media reports.
She told the inquest how Tremaine had told her Scott said: “He picked Lachie up and threw him in the pond.”
The witness re-enacted a two-handed throwing motion which she claims Tremaine demonstrated at the time.
He did not indicate if Lachie was alive at the time, the witness told the inquest.
She told the inquest she also had a subsequent message exchange with Tremaine on a Facebook account she no longer has access to, further insinuating Scott’s involvement.
“He said something like, I can’t recall exactly, something really dodgy sounding, something that sounded like it related to the situation,” she said.
Under cross-examination from counsel for Lachie’s father, Max Simpkins, the witness said although she was under the influence of marijuana during the verbal exchange, she had no doubt what Tremaine initially told her was true.
She told Simpkins it was her impression that Tremaine demonstrated the act of throwing Lachie in the pond as how he was shown by Scott.
She said she had nothing to get out of coming forward.
Beatrix Woodhouse, counsel for Lachie’s mother, put it to the witness that there was a possibility Tremaine had “made it up”.
The witness replied: “For you to say that is sick. It’s black and white, you can’t deny it.”
Woodhouse put it to the witness that her appearance on a podcast before her court appearance may be a case of her jumping on the “media bandwagon”.
“For you to say that as a lawyer on this case makes me sick,” she replied.
Tremaine told the inquest the alleged exchange with the first witness did not happen, though a subsequent text exchange in which he appeared to confirm the initial exchange “looked bad”.
The message exchange was initially reported by Newsroom. The witness wrote: “Bro do U remember how [redacted] said he threw that boy in the pond?”
Tremaine replied: “yea I told ya haha”.
The witness replied: “U should really go to the pigs bro it’s a 3 year old boy [redacted] is f***ed up in the head for that that’s disgusting”.
Tremaine replied: “Nah I’m staying out of it haha”.
Under cross-examination from Bates, Tremaine told the inquest he had known Scott since primary school and he was one of his oldest friends.
He told the inquest he had never met Lachie, and was not in Gore at the time of his death.
He said he had grown apart from Scott, and only spoke to him once following Lachie’s death though was unsure of the time period.
Tremaine said he did not recall having the verbal conversation with the witness, and it was not true he demonstrated a throwing action.
He confirmed the text messages to the witness were from him. He told the inquest at the time he “had in my head what Johnny told me ... which is, I went to his house and he said ‘you didn’t meet Lachie eh, he’s dead’.
“If I knew it was going to f***king turn out like this, I would have corrected her on the spot.
“I wanted to stay out of it, I don’t want to be here right now ... I don’t have any useful evidence to give yahs [sic].”
Under cross-examination from Mount, Tremaine told the inquest he spent periods of his childhood at youth justice centre Te Puna Wai, as well as on home detention in Balclutha when he was 15. He said he was “kicked out” of Gore High School in his second term, and took up a course.
He agreed with Mount it was “more than possible” the witness’ claim was a result of a misunderstanding.
He told the inquest his response of “yeah I told ya haha” was his way of bringing the conversation with the witness to an end.
“It is what it is, I don’t really have a good explanation for you.”
He said he messaged the witness that he was staying out of it because he did not have anything to add.
“If I knew someone that had killed a 3-year-old boy, I wouldn’t have any trouble going to the police about it. It’s a 3-year-old boy.”
Simpkins put it to Tremaine it appeared he was not taking the process seriously.
“I kind of don’t take this seriously, you’re correct. It’s got nothing to do with me.”
After Tremaine was summonsed to appear at the inquest, he texted the witness calling her a defamatory name. Simpkins asked the witness if he did so because he supported Scott.
“I don’t support any of them, I called her defamatory names because I don’t want anything to do with this. I was in my bed when a detective knocked on my door with a summons to appear in court, so of course I’m going to be p****d off.”
Scott gave evidence via audio-visual link from Australia. Under cross-examination from Bates, Scott said he had known the first witness as a child but no longer had any relationship with them.
Scott told the inquest he had only seen Tremaine “a handful of times” since high school, and did not recall seeing him until around a year after Lachie died.
He told the inquest he never told Tremaine he threw Lachie in the pond.
“I would never even joke about that.”
When asked by Bates if he threw Lachie in the pond, Scott replied: “No, definitely not”.
He told the inquest there had been numerous allegations made against him and his family.
“I think it’s disgusting, because I loved my little brother.”
Mount queried Scott on several childhood incidents where the witness alleged Scott “terrorised” her, including shaking her from a tree, coaxing her into a paddock with a ram or goat, and dragging her to a nearby river.
He told the inquest he did not recall the incidents, and said “but what kids don’t playfight?”
He told the inquest he did not recall the incident involving the river, but remembered playing in a paddock beside a river.
He said he could not see any reason why the witness would be angry with him.
He could not remember a verbal exchange with Tremaine where he informed him of Lachie’s death, but said it “wouldn’t surprise me if I addressed to him that Lachie did pass”.
Mount put to Scott a statement Tremaine made to police that Scott told him: “you haven’t met my brother eh haha, well you won’t because he’s dead”.
“If I did say something along those lines, it wouldn’t have been in that context. I wouldn’t talk about my brother like that,” Scott told the inquest.
“If anything I was probably trying not to make it awkward.”
Following his cross-examination, Mount told Scott that if he knew anything else about how Lachie came to be in the pond “now would be the time to say it”.
Scott replied: “I would have come up and said if anything did happen. But it’s all so biased in the papers and everyone believes it, and we’ve been rubbished in the media.”
Ben Tomsett is a Multimedia Journalist for the New Zealand Herald, based in Dunedin.
Maurice Gee wrote more than 30 novels for adults and children.