Kahui inquest: Mother enrolled on anger course before deaths

Chris and Cru Kahui. Photo / Supplied

The mother of the Kahui twins was enrolled in an anger management course one month before they were fatally injured but never attended, an inquest into their deaths heard today.

Three-month-old Chris and Cru Kahui died in Auckland's Starship hospital on June 19, 2006. Their father Chris Kahui was later tried and acquitted of their murders.

Detective Sergeant Chris Barry was the officer who arrested Mr Kahui.

Under cross-examination by Mr Kahui's lawyer, Chris Wilkinson-Smith, Mr Barry today confirmed police were aware that the twins' mother Macsyna King had been enrolled in an anger management course in May, 2006.

The twins were taken to hospital with fatal head injuries the following month.

"If you start going into incidents of people being angry, you could level that at both parties - both Chris Kahui and Macsyna King," Mr Barry said.

Coroner Garry Evans said the officer had not included the anger management course in his evidence to the inquest because his evidence was only a summary of the police file.

But Mr Wilkinson-Smith took it further.

"I suggest it falls below the standard of a competent investigator," he said.

Mr Barry replied: "I left it out in the same way I left out cases of Chris Kahui being angry."

There will be only an initial two weeks of evidence in this hearing from today, and another two weeks of evidence from November 1. The inquest will then be adjourned until 2011 to ensure evidence is transmitted to two Australian experts, who will give evidence in the new year.