Key witness backtracks
A key witness at the Lachie Jones inquest says the “scuffling, footsteps and banging around’’ she could hear in her washhouse was the toddler on the night of his death – but she did not physically see the boy.
But she has backtracked on a statement she gave to police, saying she and Lachie’s mother smoked marijuana on the night the toddler died, saying she was not using the drug at the time.
Debbie Thurston gave evidence at an inquest into the toddler’s death in Invercargill on Wednesday and yesterday. Lachie was found dead late on the evening of January 29, 2019, face up in a council oxidation pond near his home.
On the night Lachie died, Thurston lived just along the street from Officer and said Officer and the toddler visited her that night.
Thurston knew them quite well – she and Officer had an on-and-off friendship after Officer slept with her ex-husband, but she had a soft spot for Lachie, she said.
“He was special to me,’’ she said. “We just have our moments like all people do but I really care about her [Officer] as a mum and a person.’’
Officer gave evidence earlier in the week that Lachie ran away on the night he died and she caught up with him at Thurston’s house.
While giving evidence, Officer denied claims that she had visited the house to create an alibi for the death.
Thurston said she heard a soft knocking on the door, which she thought was Lachie, and they came into the house and had a short conversation.
She believed this would have been not long after 7.30pm, she said.
She said she could hear Lachie’s “scuffling, footsteps and banging around’’ in the washhouse near the door, but did not see him.
Under cross-examination from Max Simpkins, who was acting for Paul Jones, she admitted that she had only told police that she had heard ‘’mumbling’’ in her previous statements to police.
“I heard Lachie. I know he was there,’’ she told the inquest.
While being questioned by lawyer Robin Bates, who was representing the police, Thurston gave a detailed account of how she helped Officer search for Lachie.
Officer had gone home to search for the boy but came back and asked for help because she could not find him, she said.
They searched Officer’s house and a park next door before heading down Grasslands Rd.
Despite saying she had lived in Salford St for 10 years, she said she did not know that
the council sewerage ponds were there.
Excerpts of a 111 call were played, in which Officer can be heard saying: “Oh gosh I can’t believe he’s done this Debbie, he was just in your laundry’’.
“What was he doing there in the first place?’’ Thurston could be heard asking.
“He went to visit you. He went to your … He’s being funny,’’ Officer said.
While being questioned by Simon Mount, who was counsel for the coroner, Thurston said she could not recall that conversation but was 99% sure Lachie had been in her wash-house that evening.
Officer made two calls that night, and Thurston said she assumed she spoke to her son Cameron on the first call, while the second was to police, Thurston said.
In her evidence earlier in the week, Officer agreed that she made a call to police at 9.36pm, after initially calling *555 because she thought that was the emergency number on a cellphone.
After police arrived, Thurston drove to a shop in Gore to get cigarettes and was at Officer’s house when police told her her son had died. She stayed the night, but could not remember who else was there, she said.
Simpkins questioned her about a call she made to police on April 9 this year, saying she and Officer had ‘’had a small puff’’ on a marijuana cigarette butt Thurston had found.
She admitted to regularly self-medicating with marijuana but said she had not consumed any with Officer that night, and had called police back to say she had been confused about what night it was.
She also recalled telling police about a conversation she had with Officer the day after Lachie had died where Officer said Lachie had ‘’done it to himself by running away’’ and he’d ‘’done her a favour“.
“She was frustrated, in shock, frustrated with Paul and she said he’s done it to himself by running away,’’ she said.
The first hearing of the inquest, before Coroner Alexander Ho, was set down for three weeks.