KEY POINTS:
The former partner of the man accused of murdering his two infant sons yesterday told prosecutors she had called for "time out" in their relationship a week before the killings.
Macsyna King told a Manukau District Court depositions hearing her relationship with Chris Kahui - eight years her
junior - had been going downhill since the birth of their first child, Shane, in April 2005.
They were fighting regularly by the time their infant twins, Chris and Cru, died in June last year.
Kahui, 22, is charged with murdering the 3-month-olds at their Mangere home.
The boys died in Auckland's Starship hospital five days after they were admitted. They were killed either by blows to the head or by having their heads bashed against a solid object, the court was told.
Crown prosecutor Simon Moore yesterday described the injuries, which included "extensive" retinal haemorrhages, blunt force trauma and bleeding in the brain. Baby Chris had a broken thighbone, and both boys had rib fractures.
"Contusion tears" in the brain suggested the twins had been "deliberately shaken and/or slammed", while rib injuries were of a type normally seen in high-speed car crashes, or in falls from "significant" heights.
Mr Moore said the twins received their injuries while Ms King was out visiting her sister.
He said the babies had been born by emergency caesarean section on March 20, 2006 - nine weeks early.
Police say Kahui inflicted the injuries, though the court yesterday heard that he initially blamed the killing on another baby in the house. Kahui allegedly told police the injuries had been inflicted by the twins' 1-year-old brother, Shane, after he left the twins on a couch with the boy.
Kahui allegedly said Shane "could have whacked them in the face, or something", Mr Moore said.
Kahui later retracted the statement, the court heard.
Ms King - who appeared tearful and apprehensive - said the couple's relationship was disintegrating, and she had requested the time out "at least a week" before the twins' deaths.
"Chris and I started arguing about different things. We had a lot of ups and downs."
The couple had been living with Kahui's father, Bill "Banjo" Kahui, in Clendon, South Auckland, and Kahui had been reluctant to move out.
"We talked about it, but it just didn't happen. I don't know if it was laziness, or he just didn't want to do it."
The pair eventually moved into Kahui's mother's Housing New Zealand home in Mangere after she became seriously ill and went to hospital.
By early June last year, the couple were on bad terms. Ms King said she had become stressed looking after the children alone and her life was "quite lonely, quite busy, quite hectic".
On June 11, she left the house to visit her sister, much to Kahui's displeasure.
"He was pissed off. He felt that all I wanted to do was run away and go on the piss and stuff."
She finally ended up at Banjo Kahui's house, where she was sleeping in the lounge when Kahui found her.
He began shouting, swearing and demanding she go home to look after the children, the court heard.
"I just told him to get f****** ... I was tired. I told him to get home and look after the kids."
Ms King was to continue giving evidence today.
Kahui, sitting alongside his lawyer Lorraine Smith, showed no emotion throughout the hearing, and did not react when Ms King entered the court.
In other evidence, Auckland paediatrician Lindsay Hall told the court that medical staff who cared for the twins after their premature birth were concerned by an apparent lack of interest in the babies on the part of Kahui and Ms King.
"[It was] unusual to have a family as removed from the day-to-day care of their children as was found with the Kahui parents. These were very uncomplicated children to lookafter."
Under cross-examination by defence co-counsel Michele Wilkinson-Smith, Dr Hall said Macsyna King had been "unusually" absent while the twins were in hospital.
"The father can be absent for a number of reasons, but it is unusual for a mother to be absent."
The hearing, which will determine if Kahui stands trial, is set down for two weeks.
THE CASE
The accused: Chris Kahui.
The charges: Two counts of murder.
The circumstances: The death of Kahui's two 3-month-old boys, Chris and Cru Kahui, at Mangere on June 12, 2006.
The hearing: The Manukau District Court is hearing depositions to decide whether Kahui will stand trial.
The defence team: Lorraine Smith and Michele Wilkinson-Smith.
MEDIA WARNED OVER KAHUI TRIAL COVER
Yesterday's hearing into murder charges against Chris Kahui began with a warning to media about coverage of the hearing, in the wake of a story published in a Sunday newspaper.
Defence lawyer Michele Wilkinson-Smith made an in-chambers application to have all evidence presented at the hearing suppressed, in the wake of the Herald on Sunday's report.
Crown Solicitor Simon Moore, while not entirely unsympathetic with the defence submissions, said the best approach was for the evidence to be presented to the court and reported fairly and accurately by the press.
However, he told the court he had raised the matter of the pre-hearing publicity with Solicitor-General David Collins, QC, who had "grave concerns" about such stories being published so close to a court hearing.
Despite ultimately rejecting Ms Wilkinson-Smith's application, Judge Roy Wade said he was unhappy about "untested and speculative material" finding its way into the public arena and he warned reporters to be "extremely careful" in their coverage.
Judge Wade said judges had "substantial powers" to deal with the media, citing the case of a British judge who jailed a newspaper editor for six months after his publication threatened the integrity of a murder trial.
