Police quiet on arrests in Kahui case

Chris and Cru Kahui died on June 18.

Police said today that aunts of the Kahui twins told them three weeks ago who they thought killed the baby boys, but the head of the inquiry refused to say if arrests were imminent.

Denise and Fiona King, half-sisters to the twins' mother, Macsyne King, last night told TVNZ's Sunday programme they had given police the killer's name, and had been told by them that an arrest could be made early this week.

They said the killer of South Auckland twins Chris and Cru Kahui was a male member of the "Tight 12" group of family members.

The police investigation into the killing of the twins is into its sixth week, with no arrests.

Detective Senior Sergeant John Tims, who is heading the investigation, said this morning that police interviewed the aunts around three weeks ago, and the information they provided "has been evaluated".

But he would not speculate about arrests and said only that the inquiry was progressing well. His team are awaiting pathology and ESR results, which are still some weeks away.

The twins died in Auckland's Starship hospital on June 18, from injuries including broken ribs, brain damage, and for one of the twins, a broken thigh bone.

The aunts said Macsyne and her brother, Robert King, had given the killer's name when asked by family members. They told the programme it was "one of the Tight 12".

"As much as I would love to shout out the name, I don't think I am obliged to," said Fiona King.

Denise King then told interviewer Cameron Bennett: "What the sister Fiona asked Macsyne was 'Who was responsible? Macsyne's reply was [name bleeped out]. That was the answer'."

Bennett asked: "Did he deny it?"

Fiona King replied "no".

TVNZ news head Bill Ralston said yesterday the decision to delete the name of the alleged killer was a regular editorial decision.

Fiona King said that when she heard on the news that her nephews had been killed, "I wanted to go and kill them [the killers] myself ... I will get you people for this."

Denise King said: "We are hurt just like the public, the world ... you are talking about our two nephews we never got to see."

The aunts said they were happy with the way police had handled the investigation and given the family time to bury the twins.

But Denise King did not believe other family members shared their feelings of gratitude.

"I think they are just really ungrateful, because they were given compassionate [time], and still today nothing has been dealt with."

In the interview, the women attacked their half-sister, and the wider Kahui-King family.

Macsyne King, they said, had never wanted to be a mother.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Denise King said. "She is into parties and groups of people. A lot of them are dysfunctional-looking people.

"These are the sort of people she liked to hang around with ...

"From how she was when she was young, she has changed."

The family came in for national criticism after they broke a promise to go to police after the twins' funerals.

Instead the family went in to private meetings, and appointed a distant relative as spokeswoman.

Both aunts attended a two-hour family hui after the twins' funerals, and said they were disgusted by the attitude of family to the deaths.

"They looked like they didn't give a shit. It looked like they had moved on," Denise King said.

Fiona King said: "I think I shed more tears at that meeting than any of them."

Neither Macsyne King's lawyer, Marie Dyhrberg, nor Mr Tims could be reached for comment on last night's programme.

But Lorraine Smith, lawyer for the twins' father, Chris Kahui, said last night she was not troubled by the content of the programme.

"There's nothing in it I regard as requiring me to speak with my client urgently."