Lachie Jones inquest: Woman claims she was told toddler was thrown in pond

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

A woman has spoken at an inquest today and claimed she was told that Lachie Jones’ brother threw him into the council oxidation pond in which he was found dead.

On January 29, 2019, Lachie was found dead late in the evening, face up in the 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.

The new witness told the inquest she had been told by a friend of Johnny Scott, who is a half-brother of Lachie, that he had been told by Johnny that he threw the young boy into the pond.

The witness told the inquest she was told this by Tyler Tremaine around two weeks after Lachie’s death when he visited her to drop off a “bag of weed”.

Lawyer Simon Mount KC at the Invercargill District Court during the second part of a coronial inquest into the death of Lachlan Jones. Photo / Robyn Edie, Southland Times, Stuff

“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 screenshotted a text exchange between her 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.

Police counsel Robin Bates. Photo / Robyn Edie, Southland Times, Stuff

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 Johnny said: “He picked Lachie up and threw him in the pond.”

The inquest into the death of Lachlan Paul Graham Jones, held by Auckland-based Coroner Alexander Ho, has begun at the Invercargill courthouse on Monday. Photo / Southland Times, Stuff

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 Johnny’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 Max Simpkins, counsel for Lachie’s father Paul Jones, that while 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 Johnny.

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 and Scott will give evidence this afternoon.

Ben Tomsett is a Multimedia Journalist for the New Zealand Herald, based in Dunedin.