KEY POINTS:
The four-month-old half-brother of slain toddler Lillybing died sleeping beside his father, possibly of suffocation, an inquest has found.
Wairarapa coroner Jock Kershaw ruled Anaru Nesta Matiaha-Jefferies' death was due to an unsafe sleeping environment and possibly accidental suffocation.
Anaru died about 2am on June 4 last year, during a family visit to Masterton.
He had been dead for half an hour before his father, Wayne Jefferies, was awoken by the infant's heart-rate monitor, the inquest heard.
Anaru was the second of Terina Matiaha's children to die, and she was not with him when the death occurred.
On July 23, 2000, her 23-month-old daughter Hinewaoriki Karaitiana-Matiaha, also known as Lillybing, died from cerebral swelling after being shaken violently while in the care of two aunts Rachealle Namana and Rongomai Paewai.
Namana was convicted of manslaughter, failing to provide the necessaries of life and wilfully ill-treating Lillybing and jailed for six years.
Paewai, convicted of ill-treatment and neglect, was jailed for two years.
- NZPA
