Mr Pilditch alleged Nia was also subjected to cold baths before being dressed in soiled clothes and that she was made to sit in a sandpit with no clothes on her lower half.
Nia was also subjected to wrestling moves inspired by television and video games and cited WWF in particular, he said.
'Kicked in the head'
Mr Pilditch said that on the night of Friday, July 20 2007, brothers Wiremu and Michael Curtis kicked Nia in the head in "the final act of violence that ended her short life".
The Crown said the kicks caused bleeding on her brain.
When she sank into unconsciousness Wiremu Curtis, the then-partner of Nia's mother, Lisa Kuka, told the toddler to wake up.
After she failed to do so he put her to bed, Mr Pilditch said.
In the early of hours of the next morning, Nia's older sister woke Kuka to tell her Nia had wet the bed, which was unusual.
Kuka who is charged with manslaughter, put the three-year-old in the bath, dressed her, and put her back in bed.
Nia did not wake up on July 21, while the adults were preparing for Michael Curtis' 21st birthday party.
By the time guests started to arrive she was seen having fits and frothing at the mouth, her arms were shaking and her legs were stiff.
One eye was partially open and her breathing was stopping and starting.
Despite this, the Crown said none of the people responsible for her care could muster themselves to call an ambulance or get medical help.
Some 36 hours had passed before Nia was taken to Rotorua Hospital on the morning of Sunday, July 22, unconscious. She never came out of her coma.
Nia was transferred to Auckland's Starship Children's Hospital later that afternoon, by which time doctors said it was already clear she had suffered brain damage.
First day of trial
During the first day of the trial yesterday a long list of charges against the five defendants was read out and Wiremu and Michael Curtis began by pleading not guilty to Nia's murder.
Justice Judith Potter told the jury the Crown would argue the Curtis brothers encouraged each other in their actions, showing murderous intent.
The courtroom was packed to standing room only with 91 potential jurors, 14 media representatives and 11 lawyers - as well as the five accused, flanked by security guards, in the dock.
It was impossible for reporters on the press bench to see the dock because of the number of people in the court, but Nia's mother, Lisa Kuka, Michael Curtis's partner Oriwa Kemp, and Nia's cousin Michael Pearson could be heard denying charges of manslaughter.
The Crown alleges that Kemp, 18, and Pearson, 20, were party to the unlawful acts of Wiremu and Michael Curtis, aged 19 and 22 respectively.
Kuka, 35, who was in a relationship with Wiremu, faces two manslaughter charges - one for allegedly failing to provide medical treatment for Nia, and the other for failing as a parent to take reasonable steps to protect her from violence.
Collectively, the four other defendants faced three charges of cruelty to a child and 20 charges of assaulting Nia and two other children when the trial began, but Wiremu Curtis and Kemp pleaded guilty to five charges between them.
Curtis admitted performing wrestling moves on the other two children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and Kemp admitted throwing shoes at them and Nia.
Some of the remaining charges against the four are representative charges, which means the Crown believes the abuse outlined occurred on more than one occasion.
The allegations include that Kemp kicked Nia in the face, Michael Curtis lifted her up to the ceiling and dropped her, and he, his brother and Pearson performed wrestling moves on her.
Jury selection for the trial took more than an hour after Justice Potter warned those in the pool that they should make it known if they did not believe they could be impartial following significant publicity on the case.
Thirteen jurors were stood aside after approaching the judge, and once the final group of eight men and four women was empanelled, she ordered them not to read or watch media reports of the trial.
Just before the lunch break William Curtis, father of the Curtis brothers, entered the public gallery. He faces separate charges in relation to earlier alleged abuse of Nia, but a trial date for him has yet to be set.
