Dad worried for son’s safety
Paul Jones had warned Gore police that he was worried about his son Lachie’s safety when he was living at his mother’s house.
He also told his friend that if the situation between Lachie and his two half-brothers continued, his son would not reach the age of 5.
Jones took to the stand on Wednesday afternoon to give evidence at an inquest for his son Lachie, who was 3 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.
Jones had spent more than four years fighting for an inquest, after he disputed the findings of two police investigations that determined that there was no evidence of neglect or criminal liability in relation to Lachlan’s death.
Jones said he was in the back of a police car after being arrested for assaulting Lachie’s mum, Michelle Officer, when he told the driver, Sergeant Hua Tamariki, that something would happen to Lachie.
“I said I was worried abut Lachie’s safety ... he said all I had to do was behave myself. He wasn’t concerned about Lachie.’’
Later in his questioning, Jones he told Robin Bates, who is the lawyer for the police, that he had grave concerns about the way Lachie was treated in the last eightmonths of his life and that “something sinister’s happened”.
“I’m not saying who’s done it but I’m saying my son didn’t walk out there.”
He told his lawyer Max Simpkins that he “missed his wee son’’.
“Just [how] all this has panned out is just ridiculous. There’s no common sense. There are all these people that have seen him on the street and the police have bought them in and identified Lachie – why didn’t that man ask if they ever think about picking Lachie up if they knew who he was?”
He told Simpkins that initially his relationship with Michelle Officer, Lachie’s mother, was good, and he treated her two sons, Cameron and Jonathon Scott, like his own, because he was not expecting to have any children of his own.
“We got on fine till Lachie came along. Whether they got jealous, I can’t comment on that,’’ Jones said.
Officer and her two sons, and their friend Jade Vigers, have all given evidence about Jones’ drinking, gambling and often violent behaviour.
“I do take full responsibility for it ... I do get high tempered. On a number of occasions I have roared at those boys both drunk and sober,’’ Jones said.
He pleaded guilty to a common assault charge for pushing Officer onto a bed. That ended their relationship.
Early in 2019, Officer had decided to give him more access to Lachie.
He had stayed at her house for two nights, first sharing a mattress on the floor and then a bed with Lachie, and he and Officer were planning to take him to Dunedin and stay in a motel for a weekend.
“For all of my ins and outs, I did love Michelle,’’ he said.
“I had Lachie and I thought he deserved a family, and that’s what I always wanted.’’
Officer cooked him eggs and gave him a kiss the morning of the day Lachie died. It was the last time he saw Lachie alive. Jones saw Officer at the courier depot, where they both worked, at 4pm and she told him Lachie had a runny nose at kindy, was tired and hot and she was going to let him have a sleep.
Jones said he did not see Lachie in the depot or her car, and he was going to call in at her house on the way to Invercargill to see him, but Cameron’s car was outside so he chose not to because the two did not get on.
Officer has given evidence that Lachie was ‘’adventurous’’ and ran away from her on occasion.
Police lawyer Robin Bates asked Jones if his theory was that Officer killed Lachie in a brief period that afternoon and Jonathan and Cameron have been involved in the death or at least in disposing of the body into the pond.
“I don’t know how my son got out there on that day; I’m here to get answers,’’ he said.
Bates asked if the significant reason why he was so upset with Officer and the boys was because he saw a level of lack of care there and the fact that Lachie had been able to take off?
“That’s only part of it, I mean, I’m disappointed that they had care of him and if someone else had picked him up that night – they’d do exactly the same as I am.
“I fought four and a half years for my son ... it just seems like a botched up police job and you’re trying to fix it.”