KEY POINTS:
They once were lovers. Now they sit on opposing sides of a murder trial, the result of the killing of their babies, twins Chris and Cru Kahui.
Both dressed in their best, he in black jacket, white shirt and tie; she in a different tidy outfit each day,
as you would for a wedding, or a funeral.
The trial began in a week when killer storms brought the end of a long hot summer.
The first day of the trial ended the long wait since news headlines spoke of outrage at a family code of silence. They are talking now; what they have to say is being woven into opposing stories.
When they died the babies had brain injuries, broken ribs and evidence of similar fractures and a broken leg Cru suffered some weeks before the fatal injuries. They were 3 months old or, adjusting for their premature births, 2-week-old babies.
Their father, Chris Kahui, is charged with their murders. His lack of stature comes as a surprise in person, the large dock accentuating his smallness.
There are no indictments in the name of the twins' mother, Macsyna King, but she too is on trial. The defence case is that she did it.
In the gallery were the curious and the connected. Members of the wider Kahui whanau were there each day, some smartly dressed, some casual.
Others, such as the accused's father, Banjo, aren't allowed to watch the trial until they have given their evidence. Ms King's family are said to be supporting her, but did not attend.
While the rain washed the world and brightened the leaves outside the window of court 15, inside, the dirty linen was aired.
During a day and a half in the witness box, Ms King wore a woebegone expression, was sometimes tearful, occasionally allowed her hackles to rise but never forgot where she was.
A barrage of expletives is her normal style when riled, but when asked in cross-examination about evidence that conflicted with her own she would preface her answers with "My evidence is ..."
If it was a popularity contest Ms King, seven years Kahui's senior, would lose. According to the evidence she is verbally abusive, prone to lashing out, promiscuous, a drinker, drug-taker (she admitted smoking P) and convicted criminal (fraud, car theft, burglary) with a history as a failed mother (six children to three fathers; two children are dead, one is in Child, Youth and Family's care, the others are being raised by their fathers).
The prosecution, for which she is a key witness, acknowledges she is no angel but says she is not a killer either. Unsurprisingly, they chose to call her early, maybe six weeks before the jury considers its verdict.
By contrast, the accused was characterised (including by Ms King) as quiet, affectionate, a follower who drank little and was not known to be violent.
But it is not a popularity contest. The killer had to have had the opportunity.
The Crown says Kahui did between 5pm and 9pm on Monday June 12, 2006, when alone with the twins in their room. His sister had entered to find him cuddling baby Chris. Baby Cru had stopped breathing. It was downhill from there to their deaths.
The implication is that the quiet man who never won an argument with Macsyna, who was angered by her absences, who may have bottled up his emotions, blew his top.
But the defence says Ms King, too, had the opportunity that evening and that cellphone records show she is lying about her movements and indicate she returned home.
Upon finding Kahui had gone to visit his mother in hospital she had flown into a rage and, as defence lawyer Lorraine Smith put it, "did something terrible to the twins".
