Defence lawyers have challenged Macsyna King, mother of Chris and Cru Kahui, over her claims that she was not at home when the twins were fatally hurt, saying phone records prove she returned to the house and "lost it".
Ms King was forced to defend her character and her role as a parent in an increasingly tense exchange during cross examination by defence lawyer Lorraine Smith at the High Court in Auckland this afternoon at the trial of Chris Kahui, who is charged with the murder of their sons.
Ms King also was forced to deny allegations she kissed Kahui's teenage brother Elvis at a party the evening the twins had been buried.
Ms King admitted to buying methamphetamine before the twins died and looking after them while still under the influence of the drug.
The twins died on June 18, 2006, within about 14 hours of each other at Auckland Starship Hospital after they were admitted to Middlemore Hospital on June 13.
Ms King, 31 a painting contractor, said she bought $100 worth of P and smoked it at Kahui's cousin's house the weekend before the crown allege the twins were fatally injured.
Ms King said she had only used the drug on that one occasion and it was in the first weekend in June and not days before the twins were taken to hospital with their fatal injuries.
Mrs Smith accused Ms King of abandoning her three eldest children, who are being raised by their two fathers.
Ms King said she had left them in the "best possible care".
"Anything was better than being with you, wasn't it?" Mrs Smith replied.
Ms King denied she had ever hurt the twins and had never admitted to anyone that she had.
Mrs Smith said Kahui's teenage sister Eva had spoken with Ms King on the Sunday evening, two days before the twins were taken to hospital, about bruises on the twins.
Ms King angrily denied speaking with Miss Kahui about any bruises on the twins or allegations that she had used makeup to conceal the bruises.
"My evidence is that is bullshit."
Mrs Smith challenged Ms King that when the twins were released from the neonatal unit she was not coping with the babies and her toddler son, Shane, at home.
Ms King said she thought she did a good job as a parent.
"It may not have been everybody's perception of good parenting, but I think I did a good job."
Mrs Smith said Ms King had effectively abandoned the twins while they were in the neonatal unit and that in the two years since her son Shane had been in the care of Child Youth and Family she had only visited him once, despite being able to have contact with him.
Mrs Smith said Ms King had two opportunities to hurt the twins, once on the Monday morning when she returned to the house and once on the Monday evening when Kahui was not home, when she was with her sister Emily.
Mrs Smith said cellphone records tracked Emily King's mobile and showed that she made calls in the area while she was with Ms King, and showed that they had returned to the Mangere area despite Ms King saying she had not.
After leaving the house on Monday Ms King had returned to the house with her sister Emily, Mrs Smith said.
"You returned home and you lost it."
"That was absolutely not true,"Ms King replied.
"You did something terrible to the twins," Mrs Smith said.
Mrs Smith challenged Ms King's statements that she did not know the twins were seriously hurt and bathed them while they were unconscious in an effort to make them more presentable to the doctor.
As the main carer for the twins, Ms King could not have helped but notice that during the four hours she was at home before taking the twins to the doctor, that they did not wake, did not feed or need their nappies changed, she said.
"You knew something was seriously wrong didn't you?"
Ms King denied saying, in Maori, that a "woman with evil spirits" had hurt the twins when asked by her sister Fiona what happened to the babies.
Ms King also denied having links with Black Power and that she threatened to put "a bullet" in her brother Stuart after he spoke with police.
Mrs Smith said Ms King had a string of convictions from 1999 to last year, including fraud and burglary.
"You're not an honest person are you?"
Ms King replied she had made dumb mistakes and decisions and she had lied before but not under oath.
The cross-examination of Ms King will continue tomorrow.
