Cris and Cru Kahui homicides

Cris and Cru Kahui were twin brothers, born prematurely at 29 weeks by emergency caesarean on 20 March 2006 at National Women's Hospital in Auckland, to parents Chris Kahui and Macsyna King. After birth, the twins spent six weeks in the Kidz First neonatal intensive care unit at Middlemore Hospital, where staff had informally raised concerns about limited parental visits. An autopsy later showed the infants had suffered fractured ribs prior to their fatal injuries.

On 13 June 2006, King returned home to find the twins with extensive bruising; their grandfather had performed CPR. The family took the twins to their general practitioner, who ordered immediate hospitalisation. A coroner later found that Kahui refused to accompany the children to hospital and ran from the family car, leaving King to carry the twins in on her own. Doctors found both infants had skull fractures from blunt force trauma, and Cris had a broken femur, which an orthopaedic specialist said could not have resulted from an accident. Cru died on 18 June 2006 at 5 a.m., and Cris died later that day at 6:45 p.m., after being taken off life support at Starship Children's Hospital.

The subsequent police investigation was hampered by the Kahui family's initial refusal to cooperate. Public figures, including Māori Party co-leader Pita Sharples and Prime Minister Helen Clark, publicly criticised the family's silence. Police eventually questioned at least twenty extended family members and ninety medical staff, and investigated the household's welfare payments, finding two substantiated instances of benefit fraud by one individual. Conflicting accounts emerged in media interviews about the identity and gender of a suspect, with relatives giving contradictory statements on television.

On 26 October 2006, Chris Kahui, then 21, was arrested and charged with the murder of his sons. He appeared in the Manukau District Court the next day and was later granted bail. Reports at the time raised questions about whether Kahui was the infants' biological father, but DNA testing confirmed paternity. After a six-week trial, Kahui was found not guilty on 22 May 2008, with the jury deliberating for only one minute. The lead investigator, Detective Inspector John Tims, said he found no evidence to support charges against any other person, including King. No further charges were laid against King or other family members.

In July 2012, Coroner Gary Evans released a report concluding that the twins' fatal brain injuries occurred during the afternoon or early evening of 12 June 2006, while they were in the "sole custody, care and control" of their father. The coroner stated there was no evidence to support the injuries having been caused by King. Kahui, who gave evidence at the inquest, attempted to prevent publication of the report.

The case drew national attention to disparities in child abuse deaths affecting Māori children in New Zealand and to New Zealand's high ranking among OECD nations for child deaths due to maltreatment, according to a cited 2003 UNICEF report.