The father of Stephen Dudley has levelled a barrage of criticism against the school where his son died.
The Coroner's inquest into the death of the 15-year-old high-school student entered its third day at Auckland District Court today. The court has already heard from several witnesses who saw the fight that resulted in the victim being knocked to the ground.
Teammates described seeing Stephen's neck pulsing and him foaming at the mouth before he was rushed to hospital where he eventually died.
The name of the school the boys attended is suppressed.
His father Brent talked in glowing terms about the boy he described as "the head of the family" despite his age.
He highlighted his displeasure at being "fobbed off" by the school, but he became more impassioned when Coroner Gordon Matenga asked him whether there was anything he wanted to add.
"We had just lost our son when he was in your care and I think you could've put a bit more bloody effort into it. Can you see how much of an impact this has had on our lives?" Mr Dudley said in a raised voice.
"You didn't come up to bloody standard as far as we're concerned."
He accepted the people the school sent to speak to the family did a good job but they were often not the people the family wanted to speak to.
"I wanted to communicate with the board of trustees and the man at the helm after the fact, and we felt you basically said you would co-operate with the police and that's all you were obligated to do," Mr Dudley said.
He said it was especially devastating because of how much Stephen had loved the school.
"So gutted," he told the court.
Stephen had been tossing up between whether to focus on basketball or rugby in his senior years at school.
"It was me that persuaded him there was more of a future in rugby. I've found that hard to deal with. After being a rugby supporter all my life, I can no longer watch it," Mr Dudley said.
Earlier today, the older boy who punched Stephen after rugby training spoke for the first time about the fight.
"I punched him with my right fist. I don't remember much else of the fight because it happened so quickly," he said.
"I feel like Stephen is dead because of me. Sometimes I think about what I could've done and what I should've done differently."
The man, who came back from playing sport overseas to give evidence, said he found it hard to talk about what had happened.
"I wish I'd just broken up the fight. Instead I made it worse. Using violence to deal with conflict was not the right thing to do. But I also feel really bad for not checking to see if Stephen was really okay. I was more concerned for myself and getting in trouble than I was for my schoolmate. I was a coward and I still feel ashamed when I think about it," he said.
The boys who admitted assaulting Stephen were discharged without conviction before the High Court at Auckland after the Crown dropped manslaughter charges against them.
Medical examinations showed an undiagnosed heart condition contributed to Stephen's death, which was critical to its decision.
Stephen's mother Mona will give evidence this afternoon.
The inquest is scheduled to last all week.
