Lachie Jones inquest: Forensic pathologist says cause of death ‘unascertained’

Tuesday, 6 August 2024

Forensic pathologist Dr Martin Sage gives evidence during the second sitting of the coronial inquest into the death of Lachie Jones at the Invercargill District Court.

A consultant forensic pathologist says that based on the evidence he has, the cause of death of a Gore toddler is “unascertained”, but on the balance of probabilities, he likely drowned.

Consultant forensic pathologist Dr Martin Sage, who has carried out more than 10,000 autopsies and has 33 years’ experience, has given evidence at the first day of the second sitting on Tuesday into the death of 3-year-old Lachie Jones.

Lachie was found dead late on the evening of January 29, 2019, face up in a council wastewater pond near his home in Gore.

During the first three-week hearing in May, a pathologist who carried out the autopsy, who has interim name suppression, admitted that based on his report, it was not safe to conclude drowning was the cause of death.

That pathologist gave evidence that he decided not to internally examine Lachie’s head and brain, which could have indicated a cause of death, including that Lachie died of natural causes, or of applied neck pressure.

Sage said there was a possibility a ‘’catastrophic intracranial event’’, or head injury, caused Lachie’s death.

Coroner Alexander Ho is overseeing the inquest into the death of Lachie Jones. (File photo)

“There has to be a full autopsy and the failure to complete a full autopsy is one of the reasons why we are here today,’’ Sage said.

Lachie Jones’s father Paul outside the Invercargill courthouse on Tuesday morning for the beginning of second sitting of the inquest into the death of his son Lachie, at the Invercargill District Court.

In Sage’s written evidence, he called that decision to not complete a full autopsy a ‘’deliberate omission’’.

“More seriously, I cannot fathom the logic of this consultation.

“His failure to examine the interior of the head and brain means that there is no exclusion of the reasonable possibility that this child has accidental or inflicted injuries … This means that the examination has failed to provide adequate documentation to use the diagnosis of drowning.”

Lawyer Simon Mount KC at the Invercargill courthouse during the coronial inquest into the death of Lachie Jones. (File photo)

Sage said that with the information available, he would use the term “unascertained” to explain the cause of death.

The wastewater ponds where the body of Lachie Jones was found in 2019.

“I must stress that this cannot be interpreted as my saying that death has occurred from any other cause, notably from any inflicted injury. There are some scene findings which strongly support drowning as the cause of death,’’ he said.

During questioning from Simon Mount KC, counsel for Coroner Alexander Ho, Sage said asphyxiation could be a possible cause of death.

“You can murder anyone by asphyxiation and not leave any signs if you know what you’re doing,’’ Sage said.

Robin Bates, representing the police, at the Invercargill courthouse during the coronial inquest into the death of Lachie Jones. (File photo)

“People usually end up with marks on the face … which is why I assume from that that it did not happen in this case, but it is possible.”

Lawyer Max Simpkins who is lawyer for Lachie’s father Paul Jones, at the inquest. (File photo)

Sage ruled out that Lachie’s death was due to sudden death on immersion in water, also called dry drowning, when muscle spasms in the airway blocked airflow and there was no water in the lungs.

“It is unlikely given the water temperature of the pond and there is no evidence to support this concept in this case,” he said.

He said that although Lachie was 1m tall when he died, the 80cm depth of the water in the pond would have been deep for Lachie, and the fact he was wearing clothing could have affected his ability to self-rescue if he fell into the ponds.

Dr Sage gave evidence that in his opinion, a time of death was unable to be determined by stomach contents, the onset of rigor mortis or the wrinkling of the skin on the hands from being in water.

Police lawyer Robin Bates asked him whether there should have been injuries to Lachie’s feet given police concluded he walked 1.2km from home, barefoot, across gravel and scrubby ground.

An inquest into the death of Lachie Jones resumes in Invercargill tomorrow, and his dad Paul hopes it will bring him some answers.

“I don’t think there is any need to say there must have been injuries to the feet,’’ Sage said.

During the first session of the inquest in May, several members of Lachie’s family were questioned by Max Simpkins, who represented Lachie’s father Paul Jones, about freezing or chilling the toddler’s body, after his grandfather reported that he was ‘’freezing’’ to the touch and a thermometer was unable to read his body temperature after he was found.

On Tuesday, Simpkins referred to a statement from David Aitken, a paramedic, who said Lachie’s body was “stone cold’’.

Simpkins asked Sage whether the organs of a body that had been put in a freezer for a short period of time would show signs of freezing.

Sage said they would not, but the skin might.

In his written evidence Sage wrote: “I believe that it would be a challenging task for any domestic freezer to completely freeze 18kg of any sort of meat from initial body temperature of 37°C unless the interval available for freezing was that of many hours, perhaps as much as or more than 24 hours. I cannot see how that is compatible with the scene information available.

“In my view the allegation of prior death and freezing before immersion in the pond is without any identifiable factual basis.’’