Emotional scenes played out in the Invercargill courthouse on the first two days of the coronial inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones, in which the boy’s mother was accused of disposing of her son’s body.
The second season of Newsroom’s award-nominated podcast The Boy in the Water launches today, which is covering the inquest as it unfolds.
The little boy’s mother, Michelle Officer, was scheduled to appear for part of the first day only, but lengthy questioning from Lachie’s father’s barrister, Max Simpkins, as well as questions from the Crown and the Kings Counsel assisting the Coroner meant her witness testimony ran well into the second day of the inquest.
Throughout her testimony, the mother sat behind three screens arranged around the witness box after Coroner Alexander Ho granted her leave to be shielded from the public gallery for reasons of privacy and mental health.
Restrictions imposed by Coroner Ho means there is no reporting allowed on any witness testimony until they have completed giving their evidence.
The courtroom was close to full, with supporters of both Lachie’s father, Paul Jones, and Lachie’s mother in attendance, as well as a large media contingent and a number of police officers, including the man in charge of the second police investigation into the case, Detective Inspector Stuart Harvey.
(That reinvestigation was opened following Newsroom’s first video story on the case, but closed a year later with no new findings released.)
The inquest is the first time the mother has spoken publicly about the death of her son. At times she sobbed, cried and became audibly angry with some lines of questioning.
Screens set up
The inquest began with the Coroner’s opening statement, in which he acknowledged the impact of Lachie’s death on the boy’s family as “unimaginable” to those not in their position.
“No condolence I express here today, while genuine, can solve your grief. I say only that, unlike you, I did not have the privilege of knowing Lachie, but that he is now my responsibility.”
An adjournment of around half an hour followed in order to set up the screens for the arrival of Lachie’s mother.
Michelle Officer’s counsel, barrister Beatrix Woodhouse, opened her questioning by asking the mother about her relationship with her young son.
“I slept with him, breastfed him, and when he passed it felt like my whole world gone,” the mother said, often breaking down into weeping and sobbing.
The mother described Lachie as very clever and with lots of energy. “He was really confident. He had lots of friends. He loved playing with his police car and his role play. That was his main sort of play.”
She added that Lachie loved her two other sons, Lachie’s older brothers. “He always used to play with my boys and he just brought so much joy to all of us.”
She also described her youngest son as “fearless”.
“You had to hold him and say, ‘Lachie don’t fall into the water’. And I don’t think he understood really the hazards, like the road and everything. He just wasn’t at that age where he got it.”
When Officer began to talk about Lachie’s father, Paul Jones, she described him as “abusive”. Jones’ lawyer, Max Simpkins, interjected to ask about its relevance, with the Coroner saying he agreed that “at the moment it does seem to be veering into inadmissible and irrelevant evidence”.
Disposal of body
The afternoon of the first day saw Simpkins cross-examine Officer, which at turns became combative.
“After organising the disposal of his body, you then returned to the house to create an alibi for you?” Simpkins put to Officer, to which she replied the idea was “absolutely ridiculous”.
Simpkins accused Officer of not being able to handle her young son, and that Lachie was chronically unwell with a range of illnesses, including having pus on his gums, bronchitis and skin rashes.
Officer disputed his assertions, saying she always took him to the doctor, bought a $3000 air purifier and said she wasn’t the only parent in the household at the time. “I can’t see why I’m getting the blame when it’s joint parenting here,” she said.
She described Paul Jones as “very manipulative”, that he had turned friends against her, and described many of his claims as “false allegations” and “tall tales”.
A theme repeated throughout her testimony was to blame Jones for the raft of accusations put to her about her son’s health and safety.
The inquest resumed on day two with more questioning of Officer from Simpkins about Lachie’s illnesses.
When Simpkins brought up the expert witness who will be testifying later in the inquest, retired US major crimes investigator Karen Smith, who appeared in the final episode of season one of The Boy in the Water, the mother said she needed a break.
The rest of the morning was taken up with questioning from Crown lawyer Robin Bates, representing the police, who showed videos of Lachie running after ducks in a park when he was around two years old.
Cannabis questions
Simon Mount KC, who is assisting the Coroner in the inquest, questioned Officer for the remainder of the afternoon.
At one point, he asked Officer about a text her son sent her less than three hours after Lachie had died asking where the grinder was, to which Officer texted back “in shed, in tent bag”.
It transpired the grinder was for cannabis. Mount then put to Officer that she had smoked cannabis with her neighbour the night Lachie went missing. Officer denied this and said it had been another time.
Earlier under cross examination from Simpkins about whether she had been smoking cannabis that night, Officer said “that’s ridiculous, that’s a lie”.
“I was not smoking dope, I didn’t do dope then, didn’t do anything. I was looking for Lachie and then I had to go home. Don’t put things into my mouth that didn’t happen and make me look bad when it didn’t happen at all. Wasn’t true. None of us done dope.”
Throughout the two days, numerous questions were put to Officer about the events of the night Lachie went missing, which you can hear more of in season two of The Boy in the Water.
The next witness, Officer’s son Jonathan, who was due to appear on the first day, will now appear Wednesday – the third day of the inquest.
The inquest is scheduled to continue for another two and a half weeks, with a second tranche scheduled for two weeks in August.
Was she asked who looked after Lachie while she went to work, picked up another son and a pizza?