More harrowing details of the last days of three-year-old Nia Glassie's short life were outlined in the High Court at Rotorua today.
Nia was floppy and frothing at the mouth the night before she was taken to hospital last year, a young witness said in a video taped
interview by a CYF specialist which was played to the court.
The crown witness - the second of two children to give evidence - told how Nia slept for three days before an aunt took her to hospital.
Her last meal, hot chips and an orange, was at lunch time on Friday July 20 last year.
Nia was in a coma when admitted to Rotorua Hospital next day. She did not regain consciousness and died in Auckland's Starship Hospital on August 3.
The little girl had allegedly been subjected to brutal physical abuse by four of the accused for several days beforehand.
The child witness said Michael Curtis told Nia's mother to take the three-year-old to hospital on the Friday night, but Lisa Kuka did not.
Curtis, 22, and his brother Wiremu Curtis, 18, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Nia. Kuka, 35, Michael Pearson, 20, and Oriwa Kemp, 18, have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.
The trial continues.
- NZPA
