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Kahui Twins Book Lays Blame
Victoria Robinson 12-08-2011
A new book on the death of the Kahui twins points the finger of blame at their father Chris and claims Middlemore Hospital falsified the babies' medical records.

Chris and Cru Kahui died from traumatic head injuries in 2006. Nobody has been convicted for their deaths, although their father Chris was tried and found not guilty of their murder in 2008.

The new book, Breaking Silence: The Kahui Case, was written by the twins' mother Macsyna King and journalist Ian Wishart. The book strongly implies Chris Kahui was responsible for the babies' deaths, although it does not explicitly state this.

Kahui has always denied he killed the twins.

Wishart said the book - which goes on sale next Tuesday - had uncovered new evidence in the case which he handed to Coroner Garry Evans, who is still to deliver his verdict on the deaths after a lengthy inquiry that finished earlier this year.

The main thrust of that evidence centres on allegations Middlemore Hospital covered up incidents when the twins stopped breathing while at the hospital, a charge the hospital strongly denies.

The book alleged Kahui had the opportunity to kill the twins because he was alone with them for about ten minutes on the night they received their injuries.

Wishart wrote that baby Cru stopped breathing that night and Kahui and his father, William 'Banjo' Kahui, told police they had performed CPR on him.

''I believe Chris and Banjo Kahui lied about this which is why their stories weren't

''And if there was no sustained effort to resuscitate Cru, I'll leave readers to join the dots.''straight and why Banjo initially hid it from police,'' Wishart wrote.

The book said the evidence showed King could not have caused the deaths because she was out with her sister Emily all night.

Wishart wrote that the evidence in the case showed the babies fed normally hours after King left the house, proving she could not have caused the brain damage which would have left them unable to do so.
In a chapter titled ''New Revelations'', Wishart alleged Middlemore Hospital covered up an incident where baby Cru stopped breathing.

The twins stayed at the hospital for five and a half weeks after their premature birth in March 2006.

Wishart said King mentioned the incident during an interview for the book and Kah

Wishart said Middlemore neonatal paediatrician Dr Lindsay Mildenhall told the inquest the twins never had trouble breathing while at the hospital.

''So what I had was new information and corroborative information that showed Middlemore's health records appear to have been falsified or incompetently put together,'' he said. Kahui spoke about it at the inquest into the twins' deaths last year.

''It's not conclusive in terms of proving that the kids were not murdered at all - I think they were - but it is absolutely staggering that a major hospital could have false records about the medical history of the twins and testify about it.''

The book alleged that Middlemore Hospital never told Kahui or King that the babies could have been harmed and failed to provide equipment to monitor the twins' breathing at home.
It also questioned whether Middlemore could have inadvertantly caused the twins' cracked ribs.

''Were they injured previously by nurses performing CPR? Is that how their tiny premature ribs got cracked? Is Middlemore Hospital covering up? Did the hospital effectively set King and Kahui up to take the rap if something ever went wrong with the twins?'' Wishart wrote.

Middlemore Hospital denied Wishart's claims.

''The allegation that there has been falsification of hospital records and some sort of 'cover up' of injuries caused during treatment is untrue and defamatory.

"It is also highly distressing for the many hard-working and dedicated clinical staff who cared for these babies and attempted to save their lives,'' Counties Manukau District Health Board Communications Manager Lauren Young said.

''Any suggestion that their deaths resulted from injuries caused by hospital staff is despicable and unfounded.''

In the book, Wishart put forward two scenarios: that the hospital caused the twins' broken ribs during CPR and their brains suffered damaged when they stopped breathing in hospital.

In this scenario, the book said, someone in the boys' house ''picked them up roughly or deliberately hurt them'' and the damage to their brains was caused beca

The alternative scenario was that Cru was not damaged when he allegedly stopped breathing and all the twins' injuries were caused by abuse.use they were already in a fragile state.

Wishart wrote: ''Somewhere between those two scenarios, I suspect, lies the truth.''

The book disputed media claims that there was a ''tight 12'' of family members who stonewalled police investigations into the murders.

''There is not a single person in the Kahui/King families who would be caught by the new child abuse right to silence abolition - everyone gave statements.''

Neither Detective Inspector John Tims, who led the police inquiry, nor the lawyer assisting the coroner at this year's inquest, Chris Morris, would comment on the book's claims because the results of the inquest had not yet been released.

A spokeswoman for the coroner said the inquest's findings were unlikely to be released for another few months.

Several bookstores, including Paper Plus, Take Note and The Warehouse, have refused to sell Breaking Silence.

A Facebook group called ''Boycott the Macsyna King Book'' has 45,882 members.

Some group members have questioned King's involvement in the children's deaths.



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