KEY POINTS:
Macsyna King has told a court how an angry Chris Kahui turned up at her father's home yelling at her to get home to look after their children, a day before their three- months-old twins were admitted to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Ms King, 30, gave the evidence at a depositions hearing in Manukau District Court which will determine whether her former partner, Kahui, will be charged with the murder of the twins.
Chris and Cru Kahui were admitted to Middlemore Hospital on June 13 last year and died in Starship Children's Hospital five days later.
Strict rules were placed on the hearing with Judge Roy Wade warning the media not to go beyond any fair or accurate coverage.
Ms King chose not to be filmed during her evidence, in which she was nervous and appeared frequently upset.
The hearing had to be adjourned early when Ms King became too upset to continue.
The twins were killed either by a blow to their heads or by having their heads bashed against a solid object.
Their father was charged with their murder four months after they died.
Scans taken when they were first admitted to hospital showed both suffered from extensive brain injuries and that Chris also had a broken leg.
Both babies suffered from subdural bleeding and broken ribs.
This morning crown prosecutor Simon Moore said the injuries were of the kind received in high velocity car crashes.
Kahui, sitting alongside his lawyer Lorraine Smith, showed no emotion and sat passively as Mr Moore outlined the injuries his sons received.
He said the babies received their injuries while in the care of their father on June 12, 2006, when their mother Ms King was out visiting her sister.
Mr Moore said the babies were born nine weeks premature and the injuries they received would have occurred when they were one week old, if they had been delivered at full-term.
Kahui gave three extensive interviews to police in which he said his eldest son Shane was responsible for the injuries, by "whacking" them while the three children were on a couch, before retracting the allegation in the third interview, Mr Moore said.
This afternoon Ms King told the court her relationship with Kahui, whom she met in 2003 or 2004, started to have "ups and downs" after the birth of their first child Shane in May 2005.
Ms King said she was primarily responsible for looking after the twins but other people were also involved in their day-to-day care, including Kahui.
Ms King said stress had been building from looking after the children, a job which was "pretty tough".
Being a stay-at-home mother of three was "quite lonely, quite busy, quite hectic".
Ms King said she and Kahui often argued about how she needed more support and help from him and eventually she told him she needed some time out and was going to stay at her sister Emily's house on the Sunday evening.
Kahui was "pissed-off" at the suggestion and thought she was just "running away and getting on the piss", she said.
On June 11, when Ms King left for her sister's home, she did not notice anything wrong with the twin's health, she said.
Judge Wade called an adjournment when Ms King appeared confused about the line of questioning, with crown prosecutor Richard Marchant telling the court Ms King had read her statement made to police in the break to "refresh her memory".
After falling asleep that evening at her father's house, Ms King was woken up by an angry Kahui who told her to "get your arse out of bed and get home to look after the kids", she said.
Kahui was swearing and yelling at her and Ms King told him to "get f..ed", that she could do what she wanted, she said.
Ms King told them she was tired and he needed to get home to look after the kids, he said.
Kahui left and Ms King said she went back to sleep before waking up and taking her son Shane to Middlemore Hospital with a chest infection, she said.
The hearing will resume tomorrow.
- NZPA
