The court concluded that in addition to having had chunks of wood dropped on her and wrestling moves copied from a computer game practised on her, she had been kicked, beaten, slapped, jumped on, held over a burning fire, spat on, placed into a clothes dryer spinning at top heat for up to 30 minutes,[1] folded into a sofa and sat on, shoved into piles of rubbish, dragged through a sandpit half-naked, flung against a wall, dropped from a height onto the floor, and whirled rapidly on an outdoor rotary clothes line until thrown off.
It later emerged that her central North Island family, which was celebrating a 21st birthday, waited 36 hours after the toddler lapsed into a coma on the floor before taking her to the hospital.
The presiding judge, Judith Potter, openly wept as she delivered the sentences and after thanking equally affected shaken jurors for coping with the case went so far as to offer them counselling.
[8] In fact many in the community blame the culture of "not wanting to nark"[5] or inform the police of domestic violence matters as one of the prime contributors to Nia's death.
For example, one of the prosecution witnesses Rawhiti Simiona, a neighbour to the house where Nia suffered, told New Zealand television he regretted not calling the police when he saw the toddler being swung on the clothes line.