Chris Kahui was giving evidence for the first time during the inquest at Auckland District Court today, but the reasons why he changed his mind have been suppressed by coroner Garry Evans until tomorrow morning.
Mr Kahui said he welcomed the inquest because he wanted answers about how his sons met their violent death.
Police lawyer Simon Mount said during his trial, Ms King's brother, Stewart, said Mr Kahui had talked about handing himself in several times to end everyone's hurt and to "make it go away".
Mr Kahui had told him he wanted to take the blame for the twins' deaths so his other son, Shane, and the twins' six-month-old cousin, Cayenne, could come home, as they had been taken into CYFs care when the twins were in hospital.
Mr Kahui said everything he said in his statement was true and he did not make any changes.
Mr Mount asked him if he was aware it was important to tell the police exactly what he knew.
"Police said that someone had used severe force to deliberately hurt the babies and cause their death. They were tiny babies who were totally dependent on their parents. You knew that anybody who deliberately injured these babies would go to jail.
"There was outrage in your family and up and down New Zealand about this," Mr Mount said.
Earlier today, Mr Kahui said he had never done anything to hurt his children.
He said he had never hit them, hurt them or shaken them in any way.
Mr Kahui said he thought his then partner Macsyna King - the twins' mother - must have caused their fatal injuries.
"I have never done anything to hurt my children. I never asked Macsyna if she did it. I didn't do it so I thought she must have."
Mr Kahui denied he had ever used methamphetamine or cannabis, but admitted to occasionally drinking alcohol.
He did not know the twins had serious injuries, and added that he thought Cru had bronchitis as he had difficulty breathing.
"Cru's breathing freaked me out. I didn't shake him but he did start breathing again," he said.
"His lips were purple. He just wasn't breathing," he said.
Mr Kahui said he performed CPR on Cru to get his breathing back.
"Almost straight after he started breathing again," he said.
In the weeks leading up to the twins' death, Mr Kahui spent almost every day in hospital with his mother who was seriously ill with pneumonia, so Ms King looked after the twins most of the time.
He didn't know she was using methamphetamine when the twins were at home, he added.
Earlier today, Ms King said she did not know how both twins sustained fractured ribs in the 14 days before their death.
Coroner Mr Evans asked her how her babies could have these older rib injuries, as well as severe head injuries, which resulted in their deaths.
Ms King repeatedly said she did not know how.
Mr Evans asked her if she accepted that these type of injuries do not happen to babies which were properly cared for.
"If I knew there was anything wrong with them I would have taken them to the doctors or hospital," she said.
Three-month-old Cru and Chris died in hospital from severe head injuries in June 2006.
Mr Kahui was found not guilty of their murders in a High Court trial in 2008, at which his lawyers said Ms King killed them.
Ms King has denied she caused the injuries which led to the babies' deaths.
Mr Kahui will continue to give his version of events at the inquest tomorrow.
