Mystery topless man seen on night of Lachie Jones death

Friday, 3 May 2024

A neighbour has given evidence that he saw a topless man running near the Gore wastewater ponds the night Lachie Jones died.

Meanwhile another has said the toddler she saw was not wearing a policeman’s hat - contrary to a previous statement.

An inquest into the death of Lachie Jones is being held in Invercargill and is expected to run for three weeks. Lachie was three-years-old when he was found dead late on the evening of January 29, 2019, face up in a council wastewater pond near his home.

Neighbour John Bennett, who gave evidence on Friday morning, said during the search of his Salford St property on the night Lachie went missing, he climbed a five-foot-high (approximately 1.52 metres) mound of dirt which gave him a view of the paddocks to the south of his property and part of the Gore District Council’s wastewater treatment plant.

He said he saw a topless man of average height running towards Grasslands Rd — the location of the entry gate to the wastewater ponds.

“It was unusual to see a person there with no top on running around. I assumed it was a searcher,’’ he said.

He did not think it was someone out for a jog and had previously only seen people that worked at the wastewater plant in the area, he said.

Lisa Harris, who also lived on Salford St the night Lachie died, told the inquest that she saw a toddler run past her house wearing a yellow high-vis vest.

Harris said she could not tell if it was a boy or a girl, or what else the child was wearing.

In 2019, she had given police a statement saying the child had a toy police hat on, but on Friday said she now could not be sure of that.

Lawyer Max Simpkins, acting for Lachie’s father Paul Jones, asked about a correction on her police statement. Originally it said the person she had seen was wearing an orange vest but it had been crossed out and changed to yellow.

“I never said it was orange. I know it was yellow,’’ she said.

She had not been asked to initial the correction and had not written out the statement herself, she said.

She told lawyer Robin Bates, acting for the police, that she had read and signed the bottom of the statement confirming the truth and accuracy of it.

This week, several members of Lachie’s family have given evidence in court, including his mother Michelle Officer, his two half-brothers and neighbour Debbie Thurston.

Coroner Alexander Ho has outlined that the inquest’s purpose is to conduct a 'fact-finding exercise' and to determine the circumstances that led to Lachie being found in the pond, whether other individuals were involved in his death, and whether the circumstances of his death included neglect, among other things.