KEY POINTS:
The defence will begin presenting its closing arguments at the Nia Glassie trial today.
Yesterday, the Crown closed its case after lawyers for the five accused of killing the 3-year-old elected not to present evidence.
Prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch told the jury the group had all blamed one another
for Nia's death but each had played a part in the violence.
"She was mistreated, abused and assaulted," he said. "She did not die in some accidental and non-specific way. She was killed."
Mr Pilditch said brothers Wiremu and Michael Curtis, who allegedly murdered Nia by kicking her in the head, had acted with "reckless intent" by targeting a vulnerable part of her body and inflicting kicks of sufficient force to fatally injure the 3-year-old.
"They consciously appreciated the risk of causing death and took it anyway ... They knew what the likely consequence was, but they just didn't care."
Michael Curtis's girlfriend, Oriwa Kemp, and Nia's cousin Michael Pearson, both charged with manslaughter, had abetted and encouraged an ongoing course of violence towards the 3-year-old which became acceptable to all five accused.
"It was condoned by everyone. It was done by everyone, and everyone fed off the behaviour of the others."
Mr Pilditch urged the jury to reject evidence by Nia's mother, Lisa Kuka, that she did not know her daughter had been seriously injured until many hours afterwards.
He said other witnesses contradicted this claim and Kuka had played a part in a cover-up that involved the accused telling police Nia had received the head injuries in an accidental fall from Wiremu Curtis's shoulders.
Kuka, who is also charged with manslaughter, had done nothing to prevent the abuse and nothing to help Nia once she was abused, letting her lie frothing at the mouth, fitting and unconscious for 36 hours.
Any reasonable parent faced with a child that sick would have called an ambulance immediately, and Kuka's failure to seek medical help had been "grossly negligent".
"It must have been apparent to her how gravely ill she was."
Crucial to the Crown case is the evidence of two children, one of whom spoke of seeing the Curtis brothers kick Nia in the head three times before she lapsed into a coma.
The children, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, were cross-examined earlier in the trial and contradicted parts of their original statements, but Mr Pilditch said they could still be considered reliable witnesses.
"Compared with many of the adults there is an inherent honesty about the position they come from ... They're not influenced by loyalties, agendas or self-interest."
Mr Pilditch said 15 months had elapsed since Nia's death on August 3 last year, and there was no reason to doubt the child who spoke of seeing the fatal kicks when that child's evidence about other assaults on Nia had been corroborated by various witnesses.
