Prison guards yesterday separated brothers Wiremu and Michael Curtis midway through the playing of a video interview in which Wiremu claimed Michael told him to lie about how toddler Nia Glassie was injured.
In the interview, Wiremu also claimed Michael and his girlfriend Oriwa Kemp were responsible for the assault which led to Nia's death.
The Curtis brothers are on trial for murdering 3-year-old Nia and had sat next to each other for more than 12 days before an extra prison guard was called into the High Court at Rotorua to sit between them.
During a break in the hearing, an agitated Wiremu was surrounded by prison and court security guards, while Michael was led separately to the court cells.
Wiremu said Michael had told him to say Nia had fallen off his shoulders when Wiremu was tackled by other children, and warned him "not to talk to yous [police]".
In an earlier video interview, also shown to the court, Wiremu told police that Nia had slipped off his shoulders when he was tackled by two children acting "like a tag team".
He said Nia had begun doing "the funky chicken" after she fell, moving her hands "all over the place" but unable to move her head or body.
He said she had spit coming out her mouth, and claimed he gave her a bath, getting in with her because she was difficult to pick up and would not wake up.
"Did you think about taking her to the doctor?" the detective who interviewed him asked.
"Nah, cos we had no ride," Wiremu replied.
In the later interview, Wiremu denied Nia was kicked in the head and thrown across a room - the final assault which the Crown says killed the 3-year-old.
It alleges both Wiremu and Michael were responsible for murdering Nia this way, but Wiremu said that Kemp and his brother did a wrestling move called a pedigree on Nia and "that's when she started to do the funky chicken".
Wiremu claimed Kemp had repeatedly assaulted Nia.
He said Kemp had placed Nia on the clothesline "a hundred times" and done pedigrees on her 15 times, and that Michael had joined in.