Lachie Jones inquest: Brother denies claims he threw toddler in pond

Wednesday, 14 August 2024

Lachie Jones’s brother says he has never told anyone that he threw his brother into Gore’s wastewater ponds, after claims were made about an alleged conversation and social media messages sent between friends.

Jonathan Scott, the youngest of Lachie’s two older brothers, was recalled to give evidence at an inquest into the toddlers’ death.

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

Police quickly concluded the boy had drowned but later confessed they had “missed some steps” in the investigation. Lachie’s father Paul Jones called for an inquest into his son’s death.

Scott gave evidence in May when he denied storing the three-year-old’s body in a freezer until he knew what to do with it.

A woman, whose name is suppressed, Tyler Tremaine, a man she sent messages to, and Scott gave evidence at the inquest on Wednesday.

The woman said Tremaine, a now former friend, said to her that Scott had told him he had killed Lachie and dumped him into the ponds.

She stood up in the dock and showed how Tremaine had demonstrated what Scott had done, picking up something with two hands and swinging his arms to show him throwing it into the pond.

“He said he grabbed him, picked him up and biffed him in,” she said.

“He did the directions with his hands and everything. It made me sick’’.

She said she was ‘’mind blown’’ at what she had been told, but she wanted to get more evidence before she went to police because a verbal account would not stack up.

Simon Mount KC, who is assisting Coroner Alexander Ho, asked her whether Tremaine was joking or playing around.

“You wouldn't want to get close mates and joke about your brother dying. Out of everything you don't joke about that,’’ she said.

She recounted how she had been in Dunedin police station in May when she had seen a story on the news about Lachie’s death and had messaged Tremaine about it.

The messages, which were read in court, say:

Tremaine: Upto

Woman: Bro do U remember how U said Johnny Scott said he threw that boy in the pond Straight up bro it’s on the fkn news

Tremaine: Yeah I told ya haha

Woman: U should really go to the pigs bro it’s a 3 year old boy Johnny is f**cked up in the head that’s disgusting

Tremaine: Na I’m staying out of it lol

Tremaine denied the conversation happened and initially denied the messages.

In response to questioning from police counsel Robyn Bates, Tremaine said he responded to the woman agreeing with her were to ‘’shut the conversation down’’.

“I don’t recall having that conversation with [withheld] no, and Jonny never told me that so I don’t know why I’d be saying that to [withheld]’.

He said the only conversation he had with Scott was after Lachie’s death, when Scott said “did you meet my brother Lachie? You can’t, he’s dead, ha ha”.

When asked whether Scott was joking about his brother’s death, Tremaine said he was not sure and people dealt with things differently.

Tremaine said he did not deny sending the messages, but said he wished he had “nipped it in the butt a bit earlier to avoid all this shit”.

Scott gave evidence via AVL from Australia later in the afternoon.

In response to questioning from Bates, Scott said he had not thrown Lachie in the pond.

“No, definitely not”.

He said he had never told Tremaine that he had thrown Lachie in the sewerage pond.

“I've never even joked about that”.

He said there had been ‘’heaps of allegations’’ of things his family could have done to Lachie, but they had already been debunked.

“I think it's disgusting because I love my little brother,” Scott said.

Earlier, when the woman was told that Scott denied being involved in his brother’s death and Tremaine denied discussing it with her, she replied: “How can you deny it? It's black and white,” referring to the texts.

She became emotionally upset when asked about her messages by police lawyer Bates.

“It’s two types of proof in one if you think about it, because he's confirming that he's verbally said it, and he's confirming it again over text,” she said.

She also took exception to Lachie’s mother’s lawyer, Beatrix Woodhouse, asking whether it was possible Tremaine had made up his comments.

“Why would you make up that? the woman asked.

“Why would you make up about someone's wee brother drowning? It's sick,” she said.