Lachie Jones inquest: Courier driver says he didn’t see mum or toddler

Tuesday, 13 August 2024

A courier driver says he never saw Lachie Jones or his mother, Michelle Officer, at the Gore depot on the day the toddler died.

On Tuesday morning, Nick Khan gave evidence at the inquest into the death of Lachie Jones, who was found dead late on the evening of January 29, 2019, face up in a council wastewater pond near his home in Gore.

Officer had provided an affidavit which said she was at the depot that afternoon and scanned a parcel.

Gore police admitted that on the night Lachie died they quickly concluded he had drowned, and later said that they ‘’missed some steps’’ in the investigation into the death.

According to Officer, Lachie ran away from her home, and then again from a neighbour’s home, and was unable to be found.

Khan was working for Post Haste Couriers, which shared a large depot with NZ Couriers, on the day Lachie died.

Lachie’s father, Paul Jones, drove for NZ Couriers, and employed Officer to scan parcels for him.

Khan said he had not seen Officer or Lachie on the day he died. He had been out of the depot for no more than 20 minutes at a time during the afternoon but had spent the majority of the time in the building, he said.

“[If] she (Officer) was there for five, 10, 15 minutes, maybe, then she was, but I was only away for 15 minutes, maximum probably 20,’’ Khan said.

Lawyer Max Simpkins, acting for Jones, said Officer had given evidence that her vehicle was ‘’blocked in’’ that day.

She had also sent a text at 5.20pm which said ‘’at depot, blocked in’’.

“It's a massive open yard, and there's no reason that anybody would block in on there,’’ Khan said.

Lawyer Beatrix Woodhouse, acting for Officer, said her client had provided an affidavit that she was at the depot from 4.55pm until around 5.20pm.

Woodhouse asked whether it was possible that Khan might have missed her during that time.

Khan said, “if she was there for less than 20 minutes, then yes … it takes longer for a person to get into the depot and be out of there within 20 minutes.’’

Khan said he was away from the depot for no longer than 20 minutes so he would not miss anyone who came to drop off parcels. If Officer had been there she would have picked up and scanned parcels that had been left at the depot for collection by the drivers.

Officer’s evidence was that there were two parcel scanners in operation at different locations at 4.55pm.

Woodhouse said, “she's fairly definitive that she was at the depot at 4.55pm.”

Khan said sometimes when parcels were scanned the system did not save the data, and it just stayed in the system until he went back to the depot.

“Then we set our scanner back on the dock, and then everything from there will automatically back up. So the timing of everything, the minute it's backing up, will come up there, rather than the minute we actually scan it.’’

Officer gave evidence earlier in the inquest that she took Lachie to the depot after she dropped her son Jonathan off at work at 3.20pm. She said she pulled the roller door down and Lachie played with toys while she worked.

She said she usually did this job while Lachie was at kindergarten but was ‘’running late’’.

Officer said Jones called in and during the conversation said he could not visit Lachie that night because he was getting a haircut in Invercargill.

Paul Jones has given evidence that he saw Officer at the depot about 4pm.

Jones said he did not see Lachie either at the depot or in Officer’s car. He said she told him he had a runny nose at kindergarten, was tired and hot, and she was going to let him have a sleep, so he should not call in and see him on his way to Invercargill.

Council gives evidence

Gore District Council 3 Waters operations manager Aaron Green also gave evidence at the inquest on Tuesday morning.

The council had been asked to provide evidence about the ponds where Lachie’s body was found, and whether the location where his body entered the water could differ from where he was found due to wind and currents.

Green said no water temperatures had been taken on the day Lachie died, and testing had shown the south pond had a current from the north-east corner to the south-west corner then east to the outlet.

He said foam was produced on the edges of the pond in a cross wind, and the sludge in the pond was no greater than 1 metre deep and was ‘’like marshmallows’’ and could not be stood on because it did not form a solid.

The council was not able to offer an opinion on the buoyancy of the water, or how far an object would have moved, because it did not have the expertise to do so.

The inquest continues until Thursday.