Murder accused Shane Claude Roberts not baby Karlos Stephens' biological father, jury told

10-month-old Karlos Stephens died from head injuries in Rotorua in November 2014. Photo / File

There's been judicial confirmation Shane Roberts isn't the biological father of twins Karlos and Hosea Stephens.

It came in response to a question from the six-man six-woman jury in the High Court at Rotorua where Roberts is standing trial on a charge of murdering baby Karlos between November 29 and 30, 2014.

He has pleaded not guilty.

The jury trying him asked Justice Matthew Muir this afternoon if Roberts was the twins' biological dad.

The question was prompted by them seeing police photographs taken at Roberts' Alison St home on November 30, 2014, of completed forms that indicated Roberts was the twins' father.

Justice Muir explained the forms weren't official birth certificate documents and there was no evidence the twins' mother, Pamela Stephens, had known of them or how they'd been filled out.

He assured the jury confirmation of the twins' biological parentage would be produced later in the trial.

Shane Claude Roberts is accused of the murder of baby Karlos Stephens. Photo / File

Continuing with the cross-examination which Roberts' lawyer Max Simpkins had begun before the lunch break, Finesse Broughton agreed with him everyone in her family had bonded with the twins to the extent they were competing with each other to get as much time as they could with them.

Broughton acknowledged there had been family meetings which included discussion about the stress levels her father was experiencing caring for the twins. She'd taken baby Karlos with her to Whangarei to give him a break.

She disputed her former partner, Courtney Scurr's, evidence that her father's Alison St home was in a disgusting state or when they returned from a trip to Christchurch her mother's home was "an abomination".

She told Simpkins she hadn't known the twins' birth mother and her input into looking after them was non-existent.

Earlier in the day, Scurr told the court Finnesse Broughton had been ecstatic when her mother phoned her at their Whangarei home in mid-2014 to say she effectively had twin brothers.

The two of them had bonded so closely with them they wanted to adopt them.

She had legally cared for the surviving twin Hosea since 2015.

Giving evidence from Alice Springs via audio visual link, Roberts' niece, Chereece Tahata, said when she'd gone to her uncle's Alison St home on November 29, 2014 to borrow a strobe light he hadn't been there but a woman and toddler were. There'd been no sign of the twins.

To assistant defence lawyer Erin Reilly, Tahata said she'd understood from her uncle that the twins had virtually been left on his doorstep by a woman who claimed she needed someone to care for them because of problems with the Mongrel Mob.