Glassie accused weep in court

Two brothers accused of murdering toddler Nia Glassie appeared to cry as their mother gave evidence at their trial.

Wiremu and Michael Curtis both began wiping their eyes soon after their mother, Tania Te Para- Heta, entered the High Court at Rotorua yesterday.

The brothers avoided looking at Ms Te Para- Heta for most of the hour she was in the witness stand.

Wiremu, 19, sat with his head leaning back and his hands covering his eyes, while Michael, 22, buried his face in his arms on a table where the accused were sitting.

Both men wiped their eyes with their sweatshirts.

Ms Te Para-Heta was called by the Crown and told the court that Wiremu had come to her house in Auckland the day after three-year-old Nia was admitted to hospital in a coma.

She said he was drunk and she could not make sense of what he was saying, but Michael called from Starship Hospital while Wiremu was there and said Nia might not survive the night.

She said she spoke to Michael at the hospital and he told her that what had happened to Nia was "an accident, that Wiremu had picked her up and she had fell off his shoulders".

The next day the police told Ms Te Para-Heta that Wiremu and Michael were no longer allowed to visit Nia, and when she demanded Wiremu tell her what had happened to Nia, he said: "Oriwa's going to pay. She did this to Nia. She's going to pay and the old man too."

Ms Te Para-Heta assumed Wiremu was referring to his father, her former partner William Curtis.

Under cross-examination, she admitted having concerns about Wiremu's learning from an early age, and agreed he had been diagnosed as "developmentally slow" by a series of specialists throughout his school years.

He was said to be four or five years below his age group, easily influenced, and cared for by his brother.

The court also heard from a woman who used to live next to Nia's Rotorua house who told of feeding a scared child from the property and hearing abuse screamed at the child.

Suzie Kapa said she heard the words: "Get over here you little black bitch," directed at a girl who looked about two and who she sometimes gave food to because she appeared hungry.

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