Lachie Jones inquest: What happens now?

Saturday, 17 August 2024

Three-year-old Lachie Jones' body was found in Gore's wastewater ponds in January 2019.

The public phase of the inquest into Lachie Jones’s death concluded on Thursday — but the inquiry is far from over.

Coroner Alexander Ho now has the task of assessing about 3000 pages of evidence to try and determine how three-year-old Lachie came to be found dead in the Gore District Council wastewater ponds in January 2019.

At the time police quickly concluded Lachie had wandered away from his neighbour’s house without his mother noticing and drowned, but his father, Paul Jones, has always questioned that theory because there were no marks on the toddler’s feet or water in his lungs.

Lawyer Simon Mount KC, who is assisting the coroner, at the Invercargill courthouse.

Coroner Ho’s mammoth task was probably best summed up by Simon Mount KC on the first day of the inquest in May when he asked: “How can it be that a 3½-year-oldboy runs away 1.2km, nine o’clock at night, dirty nappy, climbs a fence, travels across some pretty uncomfortable ground … through the vegetation? No-one out searching sees him. He doesn’t respond to anyone calling out his name. The police dog doesn’t pick up the scent until quite close to him. Do you understand why people say this doesn’t add up?'

Coroner Alexander Ho at the Invercargill District Court during the coronial inquest into the death of Lachie Jones.

Coroner Ho said on the final day of the five-week inquest on Thursday that ‘’it may be that not all of the questions about what happened that day will eventually be able to be answered on the evidence that is before me’’.

Two pathologists gave evidence during the expert phase of the inquest this month, but Dr Martin Sage and Dr Judy Melineck do not agree on how Lachie died.

Melineck, whose evidence was requested by lawyers acting on behalf of the pathologist who carried out the autopsy (who has interim name suppression), concluded that Lachie had drowned.

Paul Jones speaks after the final day of the coronial inquest into the death of his son Lachie Jones.

Sage said the cause of death was “unascertained”, but on the balance of probabilities, it was likely that Lachie drowned.

The pathologist who carried out the autopsy on Lachie failed to examine the head, which Sage said meant there was a possibility a head injury caused Lachie’s death.

Lawyer Adam Holloway , left, and Detective Inspector Stu Harvey arriving at the Invercargill courthouse during the coronial inquest into the death of Lachie Jones.

Much was also made about whether foam that was wiped away from Lachie’s mouth by a dog handler before he began CPR was a sign that he had drowned.

Lawyer Adam Holloway, who is acting for the pathologist who carried out the autopsy, said ‘’there was little evidence that pointed to a diagnosis other than drowning’’.

While Lachie’s mother Michelle Officer gave evidence in May, a video was shown of Lachie chasing ducks in Invercargill’s Queens Park.

Forensic detective Karen Smith giving evidence via audio visual link from the United States during the coronial inquest into the death of Lachie Jones.

Police counsel Robin Bates asked several expert witnesses whether it was possible Lachie had been chasing ducks on the night he died, and fell in the pond.

Dr Carmen Basu, a general paediatrician at Starship Hospital, said that was a possible scenario.

A text message conversation read out at the inquest into the death of three-year-old Gore toddler Lachie Jones.

She said a child aged three years and eight months has the ability to walk 1.2km [the distance from Lachie’s home to where he was found] but said ‘’the unusual aspect is that he did it all by himself“.

During his summing up on Thursday, Bates said evidence from United States forensic detective Karen Smith ‘’should come with a warning to read the label carefully’’.

Smith’s evidence was critical of the police investigation into the death, saying they failed in 10 out of 10 areas cited as the most common errors in death investigations.

Jonathan Scott, 21, who is the half-brother of dead toddler Lachie Jones, arrives at the Invercargill courthouse to give evidence at the coronial inquest into the toddlers' death. He gave further evidence in August via AVL from Australia.

She concluded that Lachie’s body had been dumped in the pond and the scene had been staged to look like an accident.

Coroner Ho will also have to consider evidence given by a woman during the inquest on Thursday.

She said her friend Tyler Tremaine told her, and sent messages to her, about a conversation he allegedly had with Lachie’s brother Jonathan Scott

The woman, whose name remained suppressed, claimed Scott had told Tremaine that he had thrown Lachie into the ponds.

When called to give evidence Tremaine denied the conversation had ever taken place and said he agreed with the woman in messages to stop the conversation.

Scott gave evidence for a second time, this time via audio visual link (AVL) from Australia, where he now lives, also denying the conversation took place, and said he had never thrown Lachie into the ponds.

He said he had lived in the same house his whole life and did not know the wastewater ponds were near his home.

Coroner Ho reserved his decision, and said he could not give an estimate of when his findings would be delivered.

He said the inquest was a fact-finding exercise.

“It’s not about proving anyone right or about anyone wrong and it's not about determining whether anyone is liable in a civil, criminal or disciplinary sense. It’s about finding out what happened to Lachie.

“It may be that some people or organisations emerge out the other side of this process with their reputations affected. That is not the purpose or intention of this coronial inquiry but sometimes that is where the facts take us … my task is to determine the cause and circumstances of death and if appropriate to make recommendations to prevent further deaths in similar circumstances,’’ he said.