3 Nov 2010

Hospital should have alerted CYF, Kahui inquest told

5:11 pm on 3 November 2010

Child, Youth and Family says the Kahui family would have been closely monitored had social workers at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital made a referral.

Three-month-old Chris and Cru Kahui died after being admitted to a children's hospital in June 2006.

The boys' father, Chris Kahui, was acquitted of their murder following a High Court trial in 2008.

CYF deputy chief executive Ray Smith gave evidence at the inquest on Wednesday.

He says had the agency known there were concerns for the twins, it would have looked into the family's history, run police checks and visited and sighted the children within seven days and from then on, on a regular basis.

Mr Smith says where that would have led, no one knows.

But he told the inquest that lessons have been learned from the boys' deaths and a number of other high-profile abuse cases.

Former hospital worker regrets not taking action

Earlier, a former whanau support worker spoke of feeling responsible for the death of the twins.

Manaaki Poto, who worked at Middlemore Hospital, gave evidence at the inquest in Auckland on Wednesday.

Mrs Poto said she once observed the twins' mother, Macsyna King, dump one of the boys into their cot during an argument with their father and proceed to very roughly change his nappy.

An emotional Mrs Poto told the inquest that she had never seen a mother demonstrate such aggressive behaviour toward a new-born and that she told her to cut it out.

Mrs Poto says she regrets not immediately reporting the incident, adding that for a while she blamed herself for the boys' deaths and needed to take time off work.

As a consequence, she says, she no longer works with children.