The jury at the trial of Chris Kahui has heard for the first time the double murder accused talk about what happened the evening police believe his twin sons were fatally injured.
The trial, now in its third of an expected seven weeks at the High Court in Auckland, saw the first two of three extensive interviews Kahui gave to police after his children were taken to hospital.
For the jury of seven men and five women it was the first time they had heard Kahui speak about who was responsible for his sons' injuries, although the interviews were shown during depositions last year.
The twin boys were admitted to Auckland's Middlemore Hospital on June 13, 2006, and died in Starship Children's Hospital five days later.
Their father was charged with their murder four months after they died.
The crown has argued the babies received their injuries while in the care of their father on the evening of Monday, June 12, when their mother Macsyna King was out visiting her sister.
The defence say that someone else, most probably Ms King, caused the injuries.
In the first interview Kahui is shown being interviewed hours after his sons had been admitted to hospital and were fighting for their lives. Kahui speaks quietly in the video and is calmly holding his one- year-old son Shane, who is wriggling around and nosily drowns out the softly spoken 22-year-old at times.
As the first of the videos were played to a near full public gallery, Kahui watched the large screen intently but showed little emotion.
Shane was taken into Child Youth and Family service care shortly after the statement and has been in the care of relatives ever since, with Kahui unable to have access to him.
It is in the first statement Kahui blames Shane for the twins injuries.
He tells police Cru stopped breathing the night before but had come right after being given CPR and drank a full 150ml bottle of milk.
He first noticed bruises on the cheek of the other twin, Chris, the following morning, about three hours after their 6am feed, and said Shane might have gone into the nursery and "done something...whacked him or something".
He admitted he did not see Shane hit the babies that morning but said he had hit them accidentally before.
Kahui is asked what happened and replies "I don't know".
When told the babies' injuries were so bad they probably would not survive, he tells the detective "I'm scared".
A video tape of his second interview with police more than a week later on June 21, and in the presence of his lawyer Lorraine Smith, was played to the jury this afternoon, with Kahui going over the details of June 13.
