Poseidyn Reigns Hemopo-Pickering was 10 months old when he died in 2020. An inquest into his death is now being held. Photo / 123rf
WARNING: This story contains graphic details of a baby’s fatal injuries.
A relative of a baby who died of head injuries has admitted he lied to police when he claimed the baby’s father confessed to causing the fatal injuries.
Rodney Thompson said at the inquest into the death of his great-nephew, Poseidyn Reigns Hemopo-Pickering, that he was motivated by wanting “someone to be responsible”.
Poseidyn, of Manurewa, South Auckland, was taken to Starship children’s hospital on September 5, 2020, with a skull fracture and a traumatic brain injury. He was pronounced dead the next day.
The 10-month-old’s father, Anthony Simon Pickering, was later charged with his murder but acquitted by a jury in 2022.
Thompson told the inquest last week that despite never having met Poseidyn or the baby’s parents, he was asked to uphold Tikanga Māori at the tangi.
He later told police that during the tangi, Poseidyn’s father confessed to hitting the baby on September 5, sending him backwards and hitting his head on a windowsill.
Thompson’s witness statement was supported by his cousin Philemonia Nathan, who also claimed to be present during the alleged confession.
Both their statements were used as evidence in Pickering’s murder trial.
When Thompson was first questioned at the inquest by Lily Nunweek, counsel to assist the coroner, he maintained what he had told police.
He said he had a meeting with Pickering, next to Poseidyn’s body, and the father had admitted to fatally striking him.
While he also agreed that he had told police Pickering had made a backhanding gesture showing how he hit Poseidyn, he told Nunweek he could no longer recall Pickering making the gesture, and only hearing him admitting to it.
Thompson’s questioning was stopped by the coroner when a heated argument could be heard from outside the courtroom.
The dispute was between members of Poseidyn’s extended family and a woman could be heard asking someone to “step outside”.
“One of youse knows something,” someone shouted.
Security intervened and one of Pickering’s relatives was shifted to a separate room.
Poseidyn’s mother, Filoi Huakau, who had been sitting quietly in the back of the court, was moved to sit by her counsel to assist, Kima Tuialii.
When the hearing resumed, Thompson contradicted what he had said earlier.
He said Pickering had not stated aloud that he hit Poseidyn, and only mimed it with his hand.
After a muddled back-and-forth with Tuialii, Kingi Snelgar, Pickering’s counsel to assist, questioned Thompson.
“Would it be fair to say that the [police] statement that you made at the time was motivated by your mamae [pain] and wanting someone to be held responsible for Poseidyn’s death?” Snelgar asked.
“Yes,” Thompson replied.
However, while Thompson continued to say Pickering had allegedly confessed, Snelgar suggested Thompson had been influenced by his cousin, Nathan.
“You and Ms Nathan talked about having someone responsible,” Snelgar prompted.
“Is it the case that [Pickering] never said those things, and you are wrong about what he told you?”
“All I wanted was just someone to be responsible, that’s all [it] was, yes,” Thompson replied.
To clarify, Coroner Fitzgibbon asked Thompson again if Pickering had said, aloud, that he hit Poseidyn, to which Thompson replied “nah”.
“I was influenced by my cousin,” he said.
NZME has since approached police and asked if there would be an investigation into Thompson’s admission.
A police spokesperson said they were aware of Thompson’s comments made at the inquest and would wait for the coronial process to conclude before determining what, if any, action to take.
This week, Nathan was called to give evidence, during which she became emotional.
She doubled down on her police statement, maintaining that Pickering had said he had fatally hit Poseidyn.
Nathan suggested Thompson had not really listened during the tangi meeting and denied influencing what he told police.
There had been a separate meeting during the tangi, with members of Poseidyn’s extended family, parts of which someone had recorded on their cellphone.
In the recording, Nathan could be heard saying someone needed to “take the fall” for the death.
Nathan explained she said this because, in a way, they were all responsible.
“Every single one of them are responsible,” she said.
“I didn’t care which one put their hand up for it but who did this to our baby?”
Both sides of Poseidyn’s family were victims of cycles of abuse, but it was no excuse, she said.
“If none of them are going to tell the truth, then all of them are responsible,” Nathan declared.
During her testimony last week, Poseidyn’s mother, Huakau, told the inquest she had been a heavy user of methamphetamine while pregnant with Poseidyn and during and after his death.
She had begun an affair with Pickering’s nephew in 2018 and was unsure, at the time, who Poseidyn’s biological father was.
Pickering had found out about the affair and, because of it, treated Poseidyn differently, Huakau said.
She was afraid to leave the baby alone with Pickering and had only done so for a brief moment on September 5, when she went to pick up something from a friend’s house.
When she returned, the family of four had an hour-long nap before Huakau was woken by Pickering, telling her to call an ambulance.
It was only once they were at the hospital that Pickering mentioned Poseidyn had “banged his head” on the windowsill, Huakau told the inquest.
“Why the eff didn’t you say something?” she remembered screaming at her then partner.
While being questioned by Snelgar, the mother admitted to still being in a haze of methamphetamine and grief during the subsequent murder trial.
She confessed to lying in the trial “there and here”.
She also owned up to making contradictory and false statements to police in the days after her son’s death.
Huakau falsely told police that Poseidyn slept in a bassinet because she was worried they hadn’t been practising “safe sleeping”.
She also told police Poseidyn may have had an accident with a teething toy, which they did not own, and she also did not initially disclose her drug use to the authorities.
Huakau told the inquest she lied to make herself seem like a good mother, and so she would not be judged.
Snelgar asked if wanting to seem like a good mother had “influenced” anything she had said in the inquest.
“That’s not the case today,” she replied.
The inquest will conclude on Monday with Pickering’s evidence.
Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She’s currently based in Auckland covering justice-related stories.