Aisling inquest: Manhole problem listed as 'non-urgent'

Testing shows that if two-year-old Aisling Symes stood on a displaced manhole cover it would have flipped. Photo / supplied

A former employee of the Waitakere City Council has admitted to the inquest into the death of Aisling Symes that there were faults with its customer service system.

The inquest has heard a call about a problem with the manhole cover near Aisling's home was made by a neighbour before she died from falling in the drain in October 2009.

Former employee Martin Glover says the system used didn't allow the person who took the phone call to raise an emergency, so the manhole was listed as a non-urgent job.

He says the job should've been listed as an emergency.

Martin Glover says it wasn't until after the death of Aisling that the problem with the system was discovered.

Ealier in the day, Aisling's mother wept in court as a neighbour described seeing a manhole cover popped open "many times".

The inquest heard how Aisling - who would have been 4 yesterday - while her mother, Angela Symes, was cleaning out her late parents' home.

Seven days later, her body was found 36m down a stormwater pipe.

Bonaventure Gasana came to New Zealand as a refugee from Rwanda.

He lives with his aunt at number five Longburn Rd and said his aunt had complained about the drain on several ocassions.

"Most of the time it was left half open."

He said he got into the habit of checking the manhole cover most days.

"I believe the Waitakere Council men have inspected but they had not done any work on it."

Stacey Baker owned number two Longburn and also complained to the Waitakere City Council about the drain.

"On each occasion, the person I spoke to said: 'We'll send a contractor out'."

She said occasionally someone from council did call her back.

She said only a month before Aisling's death, a council worker told her that they were aware the manhole cover blew off.

She gave footage of the flooding in the yard to nzherald.co.nz at the time because she felt "angry".

Yesterday a neighbour told the court how she had complained five or six times to the council about the drain but the council had not done anything about it.

Sonya Latham said she has a two year-old child and moved across the road because she was "scared he would walk into it."

"Being West Auckland, we have a lot of heavy rain so during the winter, the lid was probably off more than it was on."

But under cross-examination from Auckland Council's lawyer Grant Illingworth, it was revealed that no such complaints were received.

Police officers have also given evidence at the inquest.

One officer criticised by a coroner yesterday over his role in the search for toddler Aisling Symes is on stand-down from frontline duty after assaulting a teenager.

Constable Gareth Needham gave evidence at the inquest into the death of the West Auckland toddler.

In December, he was found guilty of assaulting a teenager and is to be sentenced on Monday.

Mr Needham was one of the police officers who responded to a 111 emergency call. He found a manhole cover upside down and slightly out of place near where Aisling was last seen.

He told the inquest he lifted the cover, which weighed about 20kg, put his head inside the manhole and used a torch to check up and down the drain.

"I called out 'Aisling'. There was no response."

He said he did not mention the manhole cover to his supervisor "because I thought it was impossible Aisling could have gone down the manhole because of the weight of the cover."

Under questioning from coroner Garry Evans, Mr Needham said he did not complete a police job sheet on the drain because it was "only one of a hundred places that we searched".

Mr Evans: "We would have made much better purchase if you had discussed your findings with your supervisor on the fifth or sixth [of October]?"

Mr Needham agreed, but said he had told a Search and Rescue member about the drain when he was posted as scene guard later that night.

He said he had searched "hundreds of places where a little girl could have got into trouble".

Mr Evans asked: "What have we learned?"

Mr Needham replied: "To record as much as practical, and to be honest, sir, it was not possible to record every single place and I think you're being unfair."

Detective Senior Sergeant Jillian Rogers told the inquest it was up to individual officers to decide what was relevant to record, but she believed the manhole cover was "highly relevant".

"The information clearly needed to be passed to his supervisor."

Under questioning from Mr Evans, Ms Rogers said: "As you said, sir, we missed a big clue."

Search and Rescue leader Senior Constable Darren Calkin said that at no time was he made aware that Mr Needham had found the manhole slightly open.

If he had been, he would have investigated further.

Needham and Constable Alan Michael Douglas were found guilty of assaulting Joshua Hart, 18, in a West Auckland park in February last year.