A resumed inquest into the death of Vaughan Te Moananui, who was shot by police after he confronted them with a gun in 2015, continues in the Hamilton District Court. Photo / File
A resumed inquest into the death of Vaughan Te Moananui, who was shot by police after he confronted them with a gun in 2015, continues in the Hamilton District Court. Photo / File
A psychiatrist assigned a patient with complex mental health issues, who was later fatally shot by police, had only been in New Zealand two weeks when he took over the man's care.
That was a "tough" assignment, an expert witness has told an inquest into the death of Vaughan Te Moananui.
Te Moananui, 33, was shot and killed by police when he confronted them with a gun outside his sister's home in Thames in May 2015.
An inquest into the case reopened in the Hamilton District Court this week after the psychiatrist rejected criticism by the coroner in interim findings following an initial inquest in October 2019.
Expert witness, Dr David Chaplow, was asked by coroner Michael Robb to write an opinion on the care provided by the psychiatrist in charge of Te Moananui and said it had been "lax" and "cavalier" but told the court this week he was surprised the doctor had been given Te Moananui's case so soon after starting at Waikato Hospital in 2014.
Matthew McClelland, QC, counsel for the psychiatrist - who has name suppression - asked if there could be criticism of Waikato District Health Board for that, to which Chaplow agreed.
McClelland said Chaplow's opinion of the community mental health psychiatrist, who was caring for 120 patients at the time of Te Moananui's death, was overly harsh.
He said Chaplow, a former director of mental health and forensic psychiatrist, had a reputation for providing measured opinions but in this case he used "superfluous" and strong language to describe the consultant psychiatrist's care of Te Moananui.
Chaplow had said it amazed him the psychiatrist only wanted to see Te Moananui every three months instead of more regularly, and that this was "lax" and "cavalier in the extreme".
The lawyer suggested Chaplow's opinion included unfair "stinging criticism" of the psychiatrist and was influenced by the coroner's draft findings on the case.
Te Moananui had a history of mental health issues and violent offending, and alcohol was a sign his schizophrenia was relapsing.
The Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre at Waikato Hospital where Vaughan Te Moananui was discharged from in April 2014. Photo / Filed
McClelland said it was the psychiatrist who saw Te Moananui after he was discharged from the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre in April 2014 who recommended he be seen again in three months.
When the consultant psychiatrist saw him in July 2014, he repeated that recommendation, believing Te Moananui to be coping well in the community.
McClelland said Chaplow's opinion of this as cavalier was "harsh" and unfair on the psychiatrist, who was the only psychiatrist in Thames at the time and was covering four towns and on call for the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre.
"What I'm troubled by, Dr Chaplow, is you have held this report up by [the first psychiatrist] as being the absolute benchmark and yet now we know it's poor, it's cavalier and it's lax that he suggested a three-month [appointment]."
Chaplow's opinion was also critical of the psychiatrist's lack of action when Te Moananui reduced the anti-psychotic medication Clozapine he was taking to counter the drowsy effects, because he worked with heavy machinery.
"One would think it expedient to contact [the patient] and ask him 'How is it going? Why did you do that?'."
Chaplow said awareness of Te Moananui's reduced medication was critical.
"I surmised that what happened is that the amount of, or absence of the drugs in the system coupled with the stress he was facing coupled with the substances he was taking, either precipitated depression or a psychotic episode, and it was noted in the discharge letter that these two things were important."
Yesterday the court heard the psychiatrist missed warning signs Te Moananui was relapsing, that he was drinking alcohol again, was involved in a fight at the Kopu Tavern and his employer said he had become unreliable and paranoid.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority found the officers were justified in shooting Te Moananui.
It said at the time of being shot, Te Moananui was pointing a rifle at them and they feared for their lives.
The authority said he had told a family member that he wanted to "go out like a gangster, giving Thames something to talk about".
The night before his death, at his home in Kopu near Thames, Te Moananui shot a man in the foot.
