Kahui twins died from blow to heads, police reveal

The house where the twins were injured. File picture / Michael Bradley

Baby twins Chris and Cru Kahui died from a blow to their heads and not from "shaken baby syndrome", police said today.

The three-month-old twins died within hours of each other in Auckland's Starship Children's Hospital on June 18.

Police said today the head injuries which killed the babies resulted from a blow to their heads or from their heads being bashed against a solid object.

It had earlier been believed shaken baby syndrome may have caused the deaths.

Officers said in the days after the twins' death that family members were not co-operating with the inquiry though many of them have now been interviewed by police.

Inquiry head Detective Senior Sergeant John Tims said today they had made steady progress in the last month in the search for the killer or killers, including a verbal briefing from the pathologist who conducted a post mortem on the bodies of the twins.

"We have learnt that this case is not a 'shaken baby syndrome' investigation as we first thought.

"The injuries to the twins were not caused by a shake but rather a blow to the heads of Cru and Chris, or their heads hitting a solid object with force applied (blunt force trauma)," he said in a statement.

As well as the head injuries, one of the babies also had a broken thigh bone.

Mr Tims said police now knew the brain injuries and the broken femur occurred at the same time.

He said the babies also had other injuries including having their ribs broken in a violent attack some time before they were bashed on the head in a later fatal attack.

Mr Tims would not say how long it was after the twins had their ribs broken that they received the fatal blows to the head.

"All I can say is that it was earlier. They were described to us as fractured ribs.

Mr Tims said the babies were premature when they were born and spent several weeks in hospital before they were allowed to go home with their parents.

"I would just like to make the point that these babies were in the care of their family for only five weeks."

He said while the new information about the injuries was important to the inquiry it was only one part of the puzzle.

"The names of the person or persons who inflicted the injuries are still missing," he said.

- NZPA