Nia Glassie. Photo / Supplied
The partner of toddler Nia Glassie's mother had the finger pointed at him by co-accused today as statements were read at a trial in Rotorua over the toddler's death.
Wiremu Curtis, formerly the partner of Nia's mother, Lisa Kuka, is one of five people, including Kuka, charged over
the toddler's brain injury death in August last year.
In the High Court at Rotorua today, Detective Matthew McLeod said when he interviewed Kuka at Rotorua Hospital she told him Nia was "fine" when she arrived home from work at 7.30pm on July 20.
However, the toddler did not wake when she bathed her during the night after wetting her bed.
Nia didn't wake as usual the next morning and after initially thinking she was "really tired", Kuka said she realised by mid-morning something was wrong as the toddler was unresponsive.
Nia died 12 days after being taken to hospital in a coma.
Kuka told police her other children said they played wrestling games with Nia and she had accidentally fallen off Curtis' shoulders and hit her head.
On July 24, Detective Mark van Kempen interviewed Kuka at Starship Children's Hospital. She said she had overheard Wiremu Curtis' brother, Michael Curtis, telling Wiremu not to say anything to police and that her own children had told her Nia was put in a dryer.
She said she had never abused her children.
The court heard that Michael Curtis' partner, Oriwa Kemp, told police she saw Wiremu Curtis using wrestling moves on Nia and putting her on a clothesline and spinning it around.
During one wrestling move Nia's head hit and broke the wooden base of the couch.
Kemp said she told Kuka about Wiremu Curtis' violence towards Nia and admitted she had thrown shoes at the child but only to "growl", not harm her.
Nia's cousin, Michael Pearson, told police in his statement that Wiremu Curtis regularly "power bombed" and "choke slammed" Nia and put her in a dryer.
The Curtis brothers have pleaded not guilty to murdering Nia, while Kuka, Pearson and Kemp have denied manslaughter charges.
The trial, which has been going for three weeks, is expected to take at least one more week.
- NZPA
