Inquest: Top cop says ‘assumptions made’

The police officer who was in charge of the investigation into Lachie Jones’ death says police made assumptions about the night he died, and that formed how the rest of the investigation continued.

Senior Sergeant Cynthia Fairley gave evidence at an inquest for Lachie, who was three years old when he was found dead late on the evening of January 29, 2019, face up in a council oxidation pond near his home.

In response to questioning from Simon Mount KC, who is assisting Coroner Alexander Ho, Fairley admitted that on the night Lachie died, the list of what police didn’t know about the case was longer than what they did know, but she believed at the time that police were doing a good job.

Fairley had been told a witness had seen Lachie on the corner of Salford St and Grasslands Rd, but in hindsight she did not know that the witness was a teenager, how long they had seen him for or whether it was Lachie. “At that time, the information we had in front of us did not indicate a suspicious death,’’ she said.

Fairley said the assumption that the death was not suspicious meant that the opportunity for police to secure scenes and obtain more, and different information, was not obtained. The decision not to investigate as a suspicious death meant police had provided incomplete information to the coroner’s office because they had formed the view the death was not suspicious.

Two on-duty coroners had asked whether there was any chance neglect had played a part in the death and whether any court proceedings could arise from it.

They both requested a forensic post-mortem be completed but after a lengthy conversation between the coroner and police, which Fairley was involved in, that did not happen.

Fairley said Sergeant Hua Tamariki had asked if he could take over the file, which he did, and she was confident that he would be able to do the job. “I am regretful that I didn’t give the investigation to the officer in charge of CIB in Gore,” Fairley said.

In hindsight, a senior CIB officer should have led the file, she said.

Fairley’s focus on the night was Lachie and his mother, Michelle Officer, she said.

She waited 10 days to obtain a witness statement from Officer because she wanted to let her grieve and hold a funeral.

Fairley said she had obtained good information from Officer on the night of the death and when she visited the next morning, she was comfortable she had captured what Officer had said.