A NSW couple accused of murdering their seven-year-old daughter must have neglected her for months before her malnourished body was found with "black vomit and bull ants" oozing from her mouth, a jury has heard.
The jury at the NSW Supreme Court murder trial of the girl's parents, which began in East Maitland today, was told a medical expert would testify she was the most malnourished child he had seen in his career.
The girl was found dead in a bedroom at her family's Hawks Nest home on November 3, 2007.
Crown Prosecutor Peter Barnett SC said a post-mortem examination showed she was 106cm tall but weighed just 9kg when she died.
She had weighed 20.5kg on February 14, 2006 - the last time she was weighed by a doctor.
"The face was distorted due to muscle wasting and (there was) no fat under the skin," Mr Barnett said.
"The urine smell persisted even after the body was washed with cleaning agents.
"The doctor found the child died of long-lasting starvation and neglect."
Outlining an interview between police and the girl's father, Mr Barnett said the father claimed the mother could not resuscitate the girl because of "black vomit and bull ants coming from her mouth".
But he told police he couldn't believe his daughter was dead because she was so well the night before, Mr Barnett said.
"He denied she was starved and said they 'fed her like anything'," Mr Barnett said.
"He said she wasn't neglected and all their children were looked after like gold."
Mr Barnett said the father also told police his daughter, the youngest of the couple's four children, had been "bubbly, smiling in the last days".
The mother sobbed regularly during the Crown's opening address, her head down and face buried in tissues.
None of the family can be named for legal reasons.
The jury was told a doctor specialising in pediatric malnutrition would give evidence that he had seen more than 500 cases of child malnutrition, but had "never seen one as malnourished as her".
"He said her death must have been due to months of malnutrition," Mr Barnett said.
The family had moved to Hawks Nest from Sydney's Matraville, in 2007, to get away from "the scum" in Sydney, the father allegedly told police.
It is alleged the girl was rarely seen outside either home, with her parents claiming she suffered from autism and a bone development disorder - neither of which was medically verified.
The jury of six men and six women was given copies of photographs contained in a folder of 100 images of the girl and the Hawks Nest house before being directed to retire for the day to study them.
They had earlier been warned some of the photographic evidence may be as confronting as Nazi Germany holocaust images, or those of starving children from third-world African countries.
The trial before Justice Robert Hulme continues on Wednesday.
