How the body of Flaxmere toddler Matiu Wereta came to receive bite marks, bruises and a fatal head injury was the subject of a High Court trial at Napier in February this year.
The two-and-a-half-year-old was attacked by his stepfather of several months, Tamehana Huata, at his home on the morning of October 2, 2015.
After a two-week trial in the High Court at Napier the teenager, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, was found guilty of manslaughter and injuring with intent to injure.
The following month he was sentenced to seven and a half years' imprisonment. Huata was entrusted to care for Matiu, known as MJ, that October morning as the pair were both feeling ill and MJ's mother, Eranna Tiopira, had to go to work.
Between the time Ms Tiopira received a text from Huata saying the pair were going to shower at 10.17am and the time he rang to tell her MJ was unconscious at 10.51am, the boy had been subjected to several blows to the head which caused a subdural haematoma.