The half-brother of Lachie Jones has denied any involvement in his death, telling the inquest he got on well with the boy.
On January 29, 2019, Lachlan was found dead late in the evening face up in a council oxidation pond 1.2km from his home in Gore, Southland.
Lachie’s half-brother Jonathan Scott, aged 16 at the time of the death and now 21, gave evidence on day three of a 15-day coroner’s inquest into the toddler’s death.
The inquest into the death of Lachlan Paul Graham Jones, held by Auckland-based Coroner Alexander Ho, has begun at the Invercargill courthouse on Monday. Photo / Southland Times/Stuff.
Scott told the inquest he got on “really well,” with Lachie, and occasionally looked after him when their mother, Michelle Officer, was away.
He said he often let Lachie play on a disconnected PlayStation controller in his bedroom while he gamed.
He told the inquest Officer had always been a good mother.
Scott told the inquest that he woke at 2pm on the evening in question before heading to work at 3.20pm.
After work, he and Lachie’s mother, Michelle Officer, took the pair of them home, where he and Officer tried to fix a sprinkler for Lachie.
While working out later in the evening, he had a mishap with a weights machine and called for his mother’s assistance.
He said the last time he saw Lachie, he had been watching YouTube clips on the television in the lounge.
Lawyer Max Simpkins, counsel for Lachie’s father Paul Jones, alleged that a notebook in which Scott recorded his work hours could have been forged in the time after Lachie’s death.
“I guess,” said Scott.
Lawyer Max Simpkins, lawyer for Lachie’s father Paul Jones, on day one of the coroner's inquest for Lachlan Jones' death in the Invercargill District Court. Photo / Southland Times/Stuff
Much of Simpkins’ questioning hung on a lie Scott had made to police in his initial statements - that a $50 cash withdrawal from an ATM the evening of Lachie’s death was for his elder brother Cameron, when in fact it had been for Scott to purchase cannabis.
Scott accepted he lied to police regarding the cannabis, having done so to cover himself and his friends and avoid getting in trouble.
Simpkins grilled Scott on the events of the evening in question, alleging that while Officer was searching for Lachie, Scott elected to “do nothing.”
Scott told the inquest this was due to his mother having been overprotective regarding Lachie.
“You knew your brother was deceased at that stage didn’t you?” Simpkins said.
Scott denied the allegation.
“We have a number of statements on the coroner’s file that say Lachie’s body was frozen, stone cold. Mr Scott, what did you do with his body to make it stone cold and frozen cold?”
When Simpkins asked Scott if there was a freezer at Officer’s home, Scott told him there was.
“Is that where you stored [Lachie] before you worked out what to do with his body?” asked Simpkins.
“That’s ridiculous,” said Scott.
Simpkins alleged that later that night, a victim support representative came to Officer’s home to speak with him and his older brother.
Her job sheet from the night said “I asked them how they were coping, they just brushed it off as if it wasn’t an issue”.
Scott told the inquest this was because he did not want to speak to strangers about his brother’s death.
The inquest continues this afternoon.
Ben Tomsett is a Multimedia Journalist for the New Zealand Herald, based in Dunedin.
This article was originally published on the NZ Herald here.
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