KEY POINTS:
Proceedings at the Kahui murder trial came to an abrupt halt this afternoon after a Crown lawyer left the court before he was due to cross-examine a witness.
Richard Marchant was due to question defence witness Tracey Still about evidence she gave in the trial at the High Court in Auckland of her younger brother Chris Kahui, who is charged with murdering his premature three-month-old twins Cru and Chris in June 2006.
Ms Still told defence lawyer Michelle Wilkinson-Smith that the twins' mother Macsyna King, who the defence says probably killed the twins, said two days after the twins went to hospital that she would "take the wrap" for the injuries to her three-month-old twins Cru and Chris.
But when evidence in chief was finished, Mr Marchant was absent, having left the court about 15 minutes earlier.
Lead prosecutor Simon Moore tried to find him but discovered Mr Marchant would not be available for the rest of the day.
He told Justice Geoffrey Venning he was "embarrassed" and that Mr Marchant's absence was not on, to which Justice Venning agreed.
A 10-minute adjournment was called, after which Mr Moore made a five-minute cross-examination of Ms Still, in which she said the conversation lasted less than a minute and that she didn't talk to Ms King about it again.
Mr Moore, an experienced prosecutor, said it was the first time anything like this had happened to him during his career.
Earlier the ex-boyfriend of Miss King told the jury that she said she "did it", but she would not then say what she meant.
Eruera Tuari today said in court that Ms King told him: "'Chris didn't do it. I did it.' I said: 'Did what?' And she said: 'Never mind, f*** it'."
Mr Tuari dated Ms King for about two months between November or December 2006 and January 2007.
He said he met her at Woody's Bar in Manurewa where he was working at the time. He said he went to visit Ms King and found her crying on her knees in the bedroom.
"She was out of it, I suppose. Angry," Mr Tuari said. He went on to say Ms King said "heaps of stuff".
Mr Tuari said he broke off the relationship after learning that Ms King was the mother of the dead Kahui twins.
Under cross-examination from Crown prosecutor Richard Marchant, Mr Tuari had said that he had planned to take a photograph on his cellphone of Ms King but on coming into her bedroom, he noticed she was distressed and hit the movie recording button by accident.
Mr Tuari said he had recorded the conversation and after seeing Kahui on television, decided to call police and give a statement.
Mr Marchant put it to Mr Tuari that he only realised the significance of what Ms King had allegedly said once he listened to the recording the next day.
Mr Marchant went on to say the original recording lasted for 31 seconds but, according to an interview he gave to police, the alleged confession was made about 10 minutes into the recording.
- NZPA
