Chris and Cru Kahui
Encyclopedia
The deaths of brothers Christopher Arepa and Cru Omeka Kahui (20 March 2006 – 18 June 2006), two New Zealand infants from a Māori family who died in Auckland
's Starship Children's Hospital after being admitted with serious head injuries, highlighted the fact that Māori children are more than twice as likely to die as a result of abuse than non-Māori and that New Zealand ranks third highest among OECD
nations for child deaths
due to maltreatment according to a 2003 UNICEF report.
Their family initially refused to cooperate with police in the homicide
investigation into the children's deaths. The father, 21-year-old, Christopher Sonny Kahui was charged with their murder. His defence was that the mother was responsible for the deaths. After a six week trial, the jury took just one minute to acquit him.
born prematurely
at 29 weeks on 20 March 2006 at the National Women's Hospital in Grafton, New Zealand
. They spent six weeks at the Kidz First neonatal intensive care unit
at Middlemore Hospital
. During this time, nurses and social work
ers at the facility had informally raised concerns with a Department of Child, Youth and Family Services
worker, as the parents, Chris Kahui and Macsyna King, did not spend a lot of time with the babies. According to the hospital, parents not visiting is not considered child abuse
, but was a "cause for concern".
Because the infants were still technically patients of Middlemore Hospital, hospital workers regularly visited the family home. During their last visit to the hospital, Chris and Cru were reported to be healthy and well-fed. However, an autopsy showed that the infants had suffered fractured ribs in an incident prior to the fatal injuries.
on them. Police said the grandfather was not the only person in the house at the time. According to former MP John Tamihere
, a member of the Kahui extended family had said "a young relative" was caring for the babies the day they were fatally injured. King and her husband took their children to the family G.P.
, who ordered immediate hospitalisation for the infants. Instead of going to Middlemore Hospital
, which was only 10 minutes away, the parents went to McDonald's
and returned home after several hours. King eventually took her infants to Middlemore Hospital. Doctors immediately discovered that the infants had serious brain injuries. After the infants were transferred to Starship Hospital, hospital workers notified the police. The Kahui infants were ultimately taken off life support
, with Cru being the first to die at 5 a.m. on 18 June. Chris died at 6:45 p.m. later in the day. The deaths resulted in an initial serious assault investigation by the New Zealand Police
before charges were upgraded to homicide
.
Both infants had suffered skull fracture
s from blunt force trauma and Chris Kahui had a broken femur
. An orthopaedic
specialist told The Sunday Star-Times
that in order to break the femur of a baby, the bone would have to bend at a 90 degree angle, ruling out an accidental cause of the injury.
The bodies were released to the family on 21 June and taken to the Manurewa
marae
for a tangihanga
(funeral
rites). They were buried at the Manukau City cemetery on 24 June.
While the infants were in hospital, Child, Youth and Family removed a 12-month-old brother Shane and their female cousin Cayenne, aged six months from two rented Housing New Zealand homes — one in Clendon
, the other in Mangere
— where the Kahui babies had lived. Police said they were treated in hospital for injuries resulting from "neglect
". They had been found to be malnourished
and "dirty". According to the Herald on Sunday newspaper, the two children were to be returned to the family in September 2006. But neither the parents or so-called "Tight 12" of family members who initially refused to cooperate with police, would be their caregivers.
, the co-leader of the Māori Party
, said the family had agreed to talk to police on 26 June, but this did not happen.
Following the deaths, Sharples said he was disgusted by the Kahui family's behaviour. He claimed some members of the family were more interested in going "to the pub and have a drink" than coming forward to police. Prime Minister
Helen Clark
said it was "absolutely shocking" for the family to hide behind the funeral while everyone in the country was "shocked and revolted" by the injuries. There were even reports that gang
members were threatening the Kahui family in utu
(or revenge) over their refusal to speak.
After refusing to speak to police in the week after the death, police went to family homes on 27 June. At least four family members, including the children's mother and aunt, were escorted to police stations. By 4 July, at least 20 extended family members were questioned, as well as 90 medical practitioners and staff who were in contact with the babies. Forensic scientists removed items such as clothing from the Kahui homes. By September, police said that the family was no longer "stone-walling" their inquiries, but a prima facie
case had yet to be established. Sunday News
reported on 17 September that the list of suspects was down to three and an arrest was imminent. This was followed by a police statement nine days later stating that they now knew who was responsible for the deaths. However, other family members could still be charged with related crimes.
Two half-sisters of the infant's mother Macsyna King, appeared on TVNZ's Sunday 23 July episode. They claimed that Macsyna and her brother, Robert King, had told them the name of the killer. TNVZ censored the name when one of the women said it, but the gender was revealed to be male. The infant's paternal grandmother, who appeared the next day on TV3
's Campbell Live, contradicted this information, stating that the killer was female.
The homes where the babies lived were also home to at least nine adult occupants, eight of whom were on some form of social welfare
. They may have been receiving payments totalling between $845 and $1395 a week, depending on their age and circumstances. Work and Income New Zealand launched an investigation to see whether all the payments were legitimate. Two instances of substantiated benefit fraud were found for one individual. The Clendon house had been occupied for two to three months, but neighbours had not noticed that babies were living there. According to the neighbours, Tuesday and Thursday nights were "party nights," as this was when benefit payments were received. Loud music and fighting were often heard. One neighbour said that a sixteen-year-old female appeared on their doorstep at 3:30 a.m., one morning after she said an older man at the Clendon house attempted to sexually assault her.
On 26 October, a "carload of detectives" had gone to several addresses looking for Chris Kahui, who was brought in for questioning. At 10 p.m., it was announced in a press conference that a 21-year-old man had been arrested and charged with the murder of the infants, and would appear in the Manukau District Court the next day. No other family members faced charges with relation to the deaths.
Contrary to this, the Sunday News reported on 31 December 2006 that, according an unnamed source, a second arrest was expected. Neither the exact charges that would be laid nor the relationship of the person to the infants were revealed. Three weeks later the same newspaper said four people involved in the investigation had been summoned to the appear at the Manukau district court on 24 January. Sources told the newspaper that the new charges relate to dead infants and a pre-school child. One of those to be charged was Macsyna King, the mother of Chris and Cru. None of these charges eventuated.
According to the Herald on Sunday, the Microsoft Word
file containing the press release announcing the arrest of Kahui had actually been created five days earlier, and the last edit was the day before the arrest. In the same article, the Herald reported the Police were questioning whether Kahui was actually the biological father of the infants. DNA tests later confirmed that he was the father.
on 27 October for a two-minute hearing, where he was formally charged with murder. He was asked not to plead; however, outside the court, Kahui's lawyer, Lorraine Smith, said her client would "fight the charges". He was remand
ed in police custody until 10 November when he was freed on bail. A pre-depositions
hearing was held 17 January.
A second pre-depositions hearing was intended to take place on 21 March. This was so his lawyer could read 60 files of evidence collected by police, and for a medical expert from Australia to become available. This second hearing was delayed because the defence was still waiting for the medical report from Australia. The depositions hearing was finally set for 18 June, with a brief court appearance on 18 April. This date was later changed to sometime in 13 August.
Kahui was found not guilty on Thursday 22 May 2008, after only one minute of deliberation by the jury. The officer who led the police investigations into the murders, Detective Inspector John Tims, said he was "disappointed" at the verdict, finding "no evidence to support a charge against any other person and that includes the mother, Macsyna King". He acknowledged the prosecutor, who had "said in his opening and closing address that there is no new evidence to support a charge being laid against the mother, Macsyna King". No charges were laid against Macsyna King.
Kahui's lawyer has threatened to lodge a complaint with the Police Complaints Authority over Police handling of the prosecution of her client for the murder of Chris and Cru Kahui.
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
's Starship Children's Hospital after being admitted with serious head injuries, highlighted the fact that Māori children are more than twice as likely to die as a result of abuse than non-Māori and that New Zealand ranks third highest among OECD
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 34 countries founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade...
nations for child deaths
Child murder
The murder of children is considered an abhorrent crime in much of the world; they are perceived within their communities and the state at large as being vulnerable, and therefore especially susceptible to abduction and murder. The protection of children from abuse and possible death often involves...
due to maltreatment according to a 2003 UNICEF report.
Their family initially refused to cooperate with police in the homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
investigation into the children's deaths. The father, 21-year-old, Christopher Sonny Kahui was charged with their murder. His defence was that the mother was responsible for the deaths. After a six week trial, the jury took just one minute to acquit him.
Before deaths
Chris and Cru Kahui were the two survivors of tripletsMultiple birth
A multiple birth occurs when more than one fetus is carried to term in a single pregnancy. Different names for multiple births are used, depending on the number of offspring. Common multiples are two and three, known as twins and triplets...
born prematurely
Premature birth
In humans preterm birth refers to the birth of a baby of less than 37 weeks gestational age. The cause for preterm birth is in many situations elusive and unknown; many factors appear to be associated with the development of preterm birth, making the reduction of preterm birth a challenging...
at 29 weeks on 20 March 2006 at the National Women's Hospital in Grafton, New Zealand
Grafton, New Zealand
Grafton is a suburb of Auckland City, New Zealand. The suburb is named for the Duke of Grafton, a patron of the first Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, and was once known as 'Grafton Heights', denoting it's history as a well-off suburb in Auckland's earliest decades...
. They spent six weeks at the Kidz First neonatal intensive care unit
Neonatal intensive care unit
A Neonatal Intensive Care Unit —also called a Special Care Nursery, newborn intensive care unit, intensive care nursery , and special care baby unit —is an intensive care unit specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants.The problem of premature and congenitally ill infants is not a...
at Middlemore Hospital
Middlemore Hospital
Middlemore Hospital is a major hospital in the suburb of Middlemore, Manukau City, New Zealand. The largest hospital operated by the Counties Manukau District Health Board, it offers tertiary-level care as well as a range of other health and social services for the Counties Manukau...
. During this time, nurses and social work
Social work
Social Work is a professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community by intervening through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice, and teaching on behalf of those afflicted with poverty or any real or...
ers at the facility had informally raised concerns with a Department of Child, Youth and Family Services
New Zealand Department of Child, Youth and Family Services
Child, Youth and Family "CYF" , is the government agency that has legal powers to intervene to protect and help children who are being abused or neglected or who have problem behaviour. CYF works with the Police and the Courts in dealing with young offenders under the youth justice system...
worker, as the parents, Chris Kahui and Macsyna King, did not spend a lot of time with the babies. According to the hospital, parents not visiting is not considered child abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
, but was a "cause for concern".
Because the infants were still technically patients of Middlemore Hospital, hospital workers regularly visited the family home. During their last visit to the hospital, Chris and Cru were reported to be healthy and well-fed. However, an autopsy showed that the infants had suffered fractured ribs in an incident prior to the fatal injuries.
Deaths
On 13 June, the infants' mother, Macsyna King, returned to the house after being away overnight. She found that the boys suffered extensive bruises, and that their grandfather, William "Banjo" Kahui, had performed cardiopulmonary resuscitationCardiopulmonary resuscitation
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emergency procedure which is performed in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person in cardiac arrest. It is indicated in those who are unresponsive...
on them. Police said the grandfather was not the only person in the house at the time. According to former MP John Tamihere
John Tamihere
John Henry Tamihere is a New Zealand media personality and former politician. He served as a Cabinet minister in the governing Labour Party from August 2002 to 3 November 2004.-Early life:...
, a member of the Kahui extended family had said "a young relative" was caring for the babies the day they were fatally injured. King and her husband took their children to the family G.P.
General practitioner
A general practitioner is a medical practitioner who treats acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health education for all ages and both sexes. They have particular skills in treating people with multiple health issues and comorbidities...
, who ordered immediate hospitalisation for the infants. Instead of going to Middlemore Hospital
Middlemore Hospital
Middlemore Hospital is a major hospital in the suburb of Middlemore, Manukau City, New Zealand. The largest hospital operated by the Counties Manukau District Health Board, it offers tertiary-level care as well as a range of other health and social services for the Counties Manukau...
, which was only 10 minutes away, the parents went to McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
and returned home after several hours. King eventually took her infants to Middlemore Hospital. Doctors immediately discovered that the infants had serious brain injuries. After the infants were transferred to Starship Hospital, hospital workers notified the police. The Kahui infants were ultimately taken off life support
Life support
Life support, in medicine is a broad term that applies to any therapy used to sustain a patient's life while they are critically ill or injured. There are many therapies and techniques that may be used by clinicians to achieve the goal of sustaining life...
, with Cru being the first to die at 5 a.m. on 18 June. Chris died at 6:45 p.m. later in the day. The deaths resulted in an initial serious assault investigation by the New Zealand Police
New Zealand Police
The New Zealand Police is the national police force of New Zealand, responsible for enforcing criminal law, enhancing public safety, maintaining order and keeping the peace throughout New Zealand...
before charges were upgraded to homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
.
Both infants had suffered skull fracture
Skull fracture
A skull fracture is a break in one or more of the bones in the skull usually occurring as a result of blunt force trauma. If the force of the impact is excessive the bone may fracture at or near the site of the impact...
s from blunt force trauma and Chris Kahui had a broken femur
Femur
The femur , or thigh bone, is the most proximal bone of the leg in tetrapod vertebrates capable of walking or jumping, such as most land mammals, birds, many reptiles such as lizards, and amphibians such as frogs. In vertebrates with four legs such as dogs and horses, the femur is found only in...
. An orthopaedic
Orthopedic surgery
Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system...
specialist told The Sunday Star-Times
The Sunday Star-Times
The Sunday Star-Times is a New Zealand newspaper published each weekend by the Fairfax group in Auckland. It covers both national and international news, and is a member of the New Zealand Press Association and Newspaper Publishers Association of New Zealand.-History:The Sunday Star-Times was first...
that in order to break the femur of a baby, the bone would have to bend at a 90 degree angle, ruling out an accidental cause of the injury.
The bodies were released to the family on 21 June and taken to the Manurewa
Manurewa
Manurewa is the southernmost major suburb of Manukau City, one of the four cities that make up the metropolitan area of Auckland in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located 6km south of the Manukau City Centre, and 26km southeast of the Auckland CBD....
marae
Marae
A marae malae , malae , is a communal or sacred place which serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies...
for a tangihanga
Tangihanga
Tangihanga, or more commonly, Tangi, is a Māori funeral rite.Each iwi differs on how they honour those who pass. Tangihanga generally take three days with burial on the third day. From the moment of death, the tūpāpaku is rarely alone. The tūpāpaku is transported to the marae...
(funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
rites). They were buried at the Manukau City cemetery on 24 June.
While the infants were in hospital, Child, Youth and Family removed a 12-month-old brother Shane and their female cousin Cayenne, aged six months from two rented Housing New Zealand homes — one in Clendon
Clendon
Clendon is a suburb of Auckland city in northern New Zealand. It is located to the west of Manurewa. The suburb is in the Manurewa-Papakura ward, one of the thirteen administrative divisions of Auckland City....
, the other in Mangere
Mangere
Māngere is one of the larger suburbs in South Auckland, in northern New Zealand.The suburb is located on flat land at the northeastern shore of the Manukau Harbour, to the northwest of the centre of Manukau city and 15 kilometres south of Auckland city centre...
— where the Kahui babies had lived. Police said they were treated in hospital for injuries resulting from "neglect
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
". They had been found to be malnourished
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
and "dirty". According to the Herald on Sunday newspaper, the two children were to be returned to the family in September 2006. But neither the parents or so-called "Tight 12" of family members who initially refused to cooperate with police, would be their caregivers.
Homicide investigation
The police believe that, while the infants were in hospital prior to their deaths, the family was uncooperative with any investigation. Pita SharplesPita Sharples
Pita Russell Sharples, CBE, , a Māori academic and politician, currently co-leads the Māori Party. He currently is the member for Tamaki Makaurau in New Zealand's Parliament.-Early life:...
, the co-leader of the Māori Party
Maori Party
The Māori Party, a political party in New Zealand, was formed on 7 July 2004. The Party is guided by eight constitutional "kaupapa", or Party objectives. Tariana Turia formed the Māori Party after resigning from the Labour Party where she had been a Cabinet Minister in the Fifth Labour-led...
, said the family had agreed to talk to police on 26 June, but this did not happen.
Following the deaths, Sharples said he was disgusted by the Kahui family's behaviour. He claimed some members of the family were more interested in going "to the pub and have a drink" than coming forward to police. Prime Minister
Prime Minister of New Zealand
The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand...
Helen Clark
Helen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ is a New Zealand political figure who was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008...
said it was "absolutely shocking" for the family to hide behind the funeral while everyone in the country was "shocked and revolted" by the injuries. There were even reports that gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
members were threatening the Kahui family in utu
Utu (Maori concept)
Utu is a Māori concept of reciprocation, or balance.To retain mana, both friendly and unfriendly actions require an appropriate response - hence utu covers both the reciprocation of kind deeds, and the seeking of revenge....
(or revenge) over their refusal to speak.
After refusing to speak to police in the week after the death, police went to family homes on 27 June. At least four family members, including the children's mother and aunt, were escorted to police stations. By 4 July, at least 20 extended family members were questioned, as well as 90 medical practitioners and staff who were in contact with the babies. Forensic scientists removed items such as clothing from the Kahui homes. By September, police said that the family was no longer "stone-walling" their inquiries, but a prima facie
Prima facie
Prima facie is a Latin expression meaning on its first encounter, first blush, or at first sight. The literal translation would be "at first face", from the feminine form of primus and facies , both in the ablative case. It is used in modern legal English to signify that on first examination, a...
case had yet to be established. Sunday News
Sunday News
The Sunday News is a New Zealand tabloid newspaper published each weekend by the Fairfax group in Auckland. In addition to a self-described 'punchy' take on the news, it features coverage of weekend sport, entertainment, star gossip, fashion and TV listings.The Sunday News has editorial offices in...
reported on 17 September that the list of suspects was down to three and an arrest was imminent. This was followed by a police statement nine days later stating that they now knew who was responsible for the deaths. However, other family members could still be charged with related crimes.
Two half-sisters of the infant's mother Macsyna King, appeared on TVNZ's Sunday 23 July episode. They claimed that Macsyna and her brother, Robert King, had told them the name of the killer. TNVZ censored the name when one of the women said it, but the gender was revealed to be male. The infant's paternal grandmother, who appeared the next day on TV3
TV3 (New Zealand)
TV3 is a New Zealand commercial television network, owned by MediaWorks New Zealand. Launched on 26 November 1989, the first private television network in New Zealand...
's Campbell Live, contradicted this information, stating that the killer was female.
The homes where the babies lived were also home to at least nine adult occupants, eight of whom were on some form of social welfare
Social security
Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
. They may have been receiving payments totalling between $845 and $1395 a week, depending on their age and circumstances. Work and Income New Zealand launched an investigation to see whether all the payments were legitimate. Two instances of substantiated benefit fraud were found for one individual. The Clendon house had been occupied for two to three months, but neighbours had not noticed that babies were living there. According to the neighbours, Tuesday and Thursday nights were "party nights," as this was when benefit payments were received. Loud music and fighting were often heard. One neighbour said that a sixteen-year-old female appeared on their doorstep at 3:30 a.m., one morning after she said an older man at the Clendon house attempted to sexually assault her.
Murder arrest
The 1 October edition of the Sunday Star-Times newspaper published an interview with the infant's father, Chris Kahui. Kahui said that he did not kill his sons, but if Police could not find anyone else, "I go down for something I didn't do". Investigators called Kahui's interview with the police on 3 October a "major development".On 26 October, a "carload of detectives" had gone to several addresses looking for Chris Kahui, who was brought in for questioning. At 10 p.m., it was announced in a press conference that a 21-year-old man had been arrested and charged with the murder of the infants, and would appear in the Manukau District Court the next day. No other family members faced charges with relation to the deaths.
Contrary to this, the Sunday News reported on 31 December 2006 that, according an unnamed source, a second arrest was expected. Neither the exact charges that would be laid nor the relationship of the person to the infants were revealed. Three weeks later the same newspaper said four people involved in the investigation had been summoned to the appear at the Manukau district court on 24 January. Sources told the newspaper that the new charges relate to dead infants and a pre-school child. One of those to be charged was Macsyna King, the mother of Chris and Cru. None of these charges eventuated.
According to the Herald on Sunday, the Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
file containing the press release announcing the arrest of Kahui had actually been created five days earlier, and the last edit was the day before the arrest. In the same article, the Herald reported the Police were questioning whether Kahui was actually the biological father of the infants. DNA tests later confirmed that he was the father.
Court appearances
Kahui appeared in the Number One court of the Manukau District CourtDistrict Courts of New Zealand
The District Courts of New Zealand are low-level trial courts in New Zealand. The District Courts can hear civil claims up to $200,000 and criminal cases involving relatively minor offences...
on 27 October for a two-minute hearing, where he was formally charged with murder. He was asked not to plead; however, outside the court, Kahui's lawyer, Lorraine Smith, said her client would "fight the charges". He was remand
Detention of suspects
The detention of suspects is the process of keeping a person who has been arrested in a police-cell, remand prison or other detention centre before trial or sentencing. One criticism of pretrial detention is that eventual acquittal can be a somewhat hollow victory, in that there is no way to...
ed in police custody until 10 November when he was freed on bail. A pre-depositions
Deposition (law)
In the law of the United States, a deposition is the out-of-court oral testimony of a witness that is reduced to writing for later use in court or for discovery purposes. It is commonly used in litigation in the United States and Canada and is almost always conducted outside of court by the...
hearing was held 17 January.
A second pre-depositions hearing was intended to take place on 21 March. This was so his lawyer could read 60 files of evidence collected by police, and for a medical expert from Australia to become available. This second hearing was delayed because the defence was still waiting for the medical report from Australia. The depositions hearing was finally set for 18 June, with a brief court appearance on 18 April. This date was later changed to sometime in 13 August.
Kahui was found not guilty on Thursday 22 May 2008, after only one minute of deliberation by the jury. The officer who led the police investigations into the murders, Detective Inspector John Tims, said he was "disappointed" at the verdict, finding "no evidence to support a charge against any other person and that includes the mother, Macsyna King". He acknowledged the prosecutor, who had "said in his opening and closing address that there is no new evidence to support a charge being laid against the mother, Macsyna King". No charges were laid against Macsyna King.
Kahui's lawyer has threatened to lodge a complaint with the Police Complaints Authority over Police handling of the prosecution of her client for the murder of Chris and Cru Kahui.