KEY POINTS:
A social worker who was today expected to give previously suppressed evidence at the depositions hearing for Chris Kahui was critically ill and unable to appear, defence lawyer Lorraine Smith said.
In a rare move, defence lawyers for Chris Kahui yesterday sought to include the evidence of Child
Youth and Family worker at today's hearing at Manukau District Court.
The hearing will decide whether Kahui should stand trial for the murder of his three-month-old twin sons Cru and Chris.
Yesterday, crown prosecutors tried to have the conversation the woman witnessed ruled inadmissible, after the evidence was suppressed last week.
Judge Roy Wade ruled the evidence highly relevant.
But Ms Smith said today the CYF worker was critically ill and an affidavit would be produced as evidence to the court this morning instead.
It is understood the woman would have recounted a conversation at Auckland's Starship Hospital she witnessed between Macsyna King and a nurse on the evening of June 13 last year.
Yesterday Kahui said he did not want to know whether the twins he is accused of murdering were his biological sons, despite hearing his partner was routinely being unfaithful to him.
In an October police video interview played to a Manukau District Court depositions hearing yesterday, Detective Sergeant Chris Barry asked Kahui if he was aware his partner, the twins' mother Macsyna King, had been having affairs with "other men".
Kahui replied that he had heard via his sister that Macsyna "could have been sleeping with somebody else".
"How did you feel about that, that Macsyna might have been seeing other men?"
"I didn't care."
Kahui said he had confronted Macsyna with the allegations, which she had denied.
"I could only take her word for it."
Mr Barry, when giving evidence from the witness box, told the court Kahui had refused to give a voluntary DNA sample claiming: "Even if the boys are not my boys, I don't care."
During the interview, Kahui also told Mr Barry that Macsyna had hit him in the past, "probably just [from] frustration, anger".
When asked if he thought Macsyna could have been responsible for the boys' injuries, he said she could have inflicted the injuries before leaving the house on June 12.
Chris and Cru Kahui were admitted to Auckland's Starship hospital on June 13, 2006 with injuries that included brain haemorrhages, broken bones and retinal bleeding.
Both boys died, hours apart, five days later.
Kahui, 22, is accused of murdering the boys while their mother was out of the home. He denies the allegations.
Mr Barry also told the court that Kahui had no convictions at the time of his arrest, in October last year.
But it was revealed yesterday that two adults with convictions for assaulting children were present in the house the night the twins received their fatal injuries.
Mr Barry - who interviewed and formally arrested Chris Kahui - said his father, William "Banjo" Kahui, had a conviction from "some considerable time previous", while the twins' uncle Stuart King, Macsyna's brother, had a similar record.
Mr King told the court earlier in the hearing he had a conviction for assaulting a child dating from 2002, when he punched a young boy a number of times about the head and face.
In another video - three were played at the depositions - Kahui is seen bouncing his other son, Shane, as Detective Julie Ingram grills him about the injuries inflicted on the twins, who at the time were close to death in hospital.
Kahui is confronted by Ms Ingram about the boys' bruising, broken bones and serious head injuries.
"Are you concerned about your boys?
"They are really serious, they might not survive. So, what has happened to your boys?"
Kahui said he did not know. He tells Ms Ingram he put the boys to bed about 6pm the previous evening - June 12 - but when checking them at about 11pm, his sister noticed baby Cru's breathing had stopped.
He told Ms Ingram he applied CPR, then after the boy had appeared to recover, fed the infant a bottle, burped him, then left him to sleep the night.
He did not check the boys again until about 6am.
He said the boys were awake for about an hour, and were fed before going back to sleep about 7am.
Both babies appeared fine until they were checked again at 10am. It was then Kahui noticed bruising developing on baby Chris' face.
Macsyna King, arrived home about noon and asked what happened to Chris' face.
He said it was possible baby Shane had gone into the room and hit the boys, as Kahui had seen the 1-year-old hit the twins accidentally in the past.
Kahui was nursing Shane during the police interview and the child wailed regularly throughout.
Mr Barry was questioned by defence lawyer Michele Wilkinson-Smith about police putting pressure on the family through the media in the months before Kahui's arrest.
He said he was not prepared to comment on media reports about the case.
Earlier, Environmental Science and Research scientist Paige McElhinny gave evidence of finding bloodstains on an armchair cushion in one of the bedrooms at the Mangere house. Subsequent analysis lent "extremely strong support" to the blood having come from one of the twins.
It was not possible to determine which one, as identical twins have identical DNA profiles, the court heard.
The hearing, before Judge Roy Wade, is expected to finish today.
- with NZPA