Kahui hung up when told to come to hospital, King tells inquest

Chris and Cru Kahui. Photo / Supplied

Chris Kahui said "whatever" and hung up when Macsyna King asked him to come to the hospital where the couple's twins were in a critical condition, Ms King told an inquest today.

Ms King is giving evidence at the inquest into the 2006 deaths of her 3-month-old sons Chris and Cru Kahui in Auckland this morning.

She said when she got to hospital with the twins they were taken straight into an operating theatre.

She said she phoned Mr Kahui at home to tell him "it is critical, it's really bad".

Ms King said medical staff asked her if the twins had been dropped on their heads.

She said she repeatedly called Mr Kahui on her cellphone and asked him to come to hospital.

"I asked him if he could please come to the hospital and be beside me and the boys," Ms King said. "I'm crying on the phone, asking him to get there and I can't honestly remember what he said."

She said Mr Kahui was "whanau-oriented" and was only a 10 minute drive away but still he did not come.

"I was asking, I wasn't being very nice: 'Can you hurry up and get your ass here?' And I think he said: 'Whatever' and hung up the phone," Ms King said.

She earlier described to the court taking the babies to their family doctor, Gopinath Nayar, who examined them.

Coroner Garry Evans asked Ms King if the doctor said to take the babies immediately to hospital.

"Dr Nayar didn't say to me something specific... he said he didn't say he was really worried or there was any danger," Ms King said.

She said Chris drove the three to the chemist where Ms King bought dummies and nappies before going home to get Cru's antibiotics.

But Ms King said Mr Kahui did not want to go to the hospital and the two began to have a fight in the car.

"I said: You f'n c***, you hurt my babies," Ms King said.

She said Mr Kahui had said the injuries to the babies must have been caused by their older son Shayne who was 13 months old at the time.

"Not at any time did Chris say that he had done something to the boys," Ms King said.

Mr Kahui is due to give evidence at the inquest later today.

But his evidence is likely to differ from what he told police before his 2008 trial.

Mr Kahui did not give evidence in his own defence then, leaving prosecution and defence lawyers to rely on three statements he had made earlier to police about the June 2006 killings.

In one, he said both Chris and Cru had fed normally after his former partner Macsyna King left the house to spend time with her sister.

However, at a coroner's inquest in Auckland yesterday, police lawyer Simon Mount said Mr Kahui would say one of the boys - baby Chris - had not fed after Ms King left the house.

Giving evidence yesterday, Ms King wept as she explained why she did not return home immediately after hearing one of her baby twins was having trouble breathing.

She has given evidence that she was with her sister Emily on the afternoon and evening of June 12, 2006, when police say the fatal injuries were inflicted.

The pair had gone to visit a friend of Emily's in West Auckland before returning to Emily's Papakura home, where Ms King slept the night.

She said she was told by her sister when waking about 7am that Cru had held his breath the previous night, causing Mr Kahui's sister and brother to seek her out at the Papakura address.

But instead of rushing back, she stayed at Emily's home and then dropped her sister off at work in Mt Wellington before returning to her Mangere home.

Coroner Garry Evans asked why she did not go back sooner, or phone home to find out what was happening, saying it appeared to be extraordinary.

"I guess I expected Chris to know and deal with the situation from our personal experience with nurses and doctors," she said.

"I can only - I did not know how severe that was. I simply didn't think that it was that bad."

Ms King also explained why she told two female police officers she did not want to speak to them on the day she first took the twins to hospital with critical injuries.

She said she had been at the hospital for 15 minutes and was emotional as she had been informed the twins were gravely ill.

"I was in no way in a reasonable state to be able to speak with them, let alone explain what happened to my sons."

Ms King denied causing the injuries that led to the babies' death.