Nia Glassie
   September 20, 2004 - August 3, 2007

The child told the abusers they should stop:

Two child witnesses gave video taped statements as to the abuse they
had witnessed. The defense in this case had tried to get the judge to
stop what was said in the video taped statements from being used in
newspapers. The attempt to block this was denied by Justice Pamela
Andrews in the High Court at Rotorua.

Jonathan Temm, the defense lawyer stated that he thought if the
statements were put into the paper, it would unfairly cause people to
be prejudice against his clients, Lisa Kuka, Nia's mother, her boyfriend
Wiremu Curtis, his brother Michael Curtis, Michael's girlfriend Oriwa
Kemp and Nia's cousin, Michael Pearson. Wiremu and Michael Curtis
are charged with with murder while the others are charged with
manslaughter. ALL of the defendants have denied that they hurt Nia
at all.

The first child witness testified that it was Michael Pearson who had
suggested that they put Nia into the dryer and that Wiremu and his
brother Michael had pushed her into the dryer like a ball and turned
it on:

The child testified that when the dryer door was opened and Nia was
allowed to come out, she was conscious and her abusers then took 
her outside and put her on the clothesline:

After Nia fell off of the clothesline, her abusers removed her clothes
and threw her into the sandpit:

According to the child, this abuse took place only three days before
Nia was taken to the Rotorua Hospital. On Wednesday, Oriwa had
kicked Nia in the nose and she ended up bleeding. On Thursday, Nia
was used to practice wrestling moves called penalties and was also
beaten. On Friday, more wrestling moves were practiced on her and
that night, the witness says that Nia was "floppy" in bed and was not
able to wake up when her mother returned home and bathed her.

The child witness says that when she told them to stop hurting Nia because she might end up sore and not wake up, she was told to "shut up". The abuse of Nia had taken place over several days between July 18 and 20 of 2008.

A second child testified that Nia was floppy and frothing at her mouth
after the abuse. The child said that Nia's last meal had been on Friday, July 20th and that she had eaten hot chips and an orange, for lunch.
The child also stated that Nia was asleep for three days before Michael Curtis had told her mother to take her to the hospital and she did not do it. 

On Saturday, there was going to be a birthday party for Michael Curtis, who was turning 21. Nia's aunt Louise took her and two other 
children home with her:

At about 4am, Nia's older sister, Esther, woke up Louise saying that
nia was going to vomit, the child said:

Louise turned Nia onto her side and noticed she was frothing at her
mouth. Louise made the decision to take Nia to the hospital. Michael
Curtis had tried to stop her and she told him:

Louise took Nia to Rotorua Hospital and she was later transferred to
Auckland's Starship, Nia was found to be in a coma.

Lisa Kuka told doctors that the injuries she had were a result of 
Nia falling off of the shoulders of Wiremu. However, more details of
the abuse Nia suffered were starting surface. Nia was put into the
fireplace where she suffered burns on her head and her feet. Her
step-grandfather was said to have put a scarf around her neck and
lifted her off of the ground and then slammed her down, then he
began to abuse her verbally. Nia had also been forced to take an ice
cold bath before the incident where she was spun around in the dryer
and she was left on the roof of the house screaming as well as being
forced to run around the house naked and being left outside for up to
an hour at a time in freezing cold weather. 

It is believed that Nia was abused throughout the months between March and July with the abuse becoming more severe in the last three days of her life. Also charged would be Wiremu's father, William Curtis who faced charges of assault on a child and injuring with intent to cause bodily harm.

Louise said that her nieces told her they were witnesses to the abuse
that Nia had been put through:

Louise said her nieces had told her they had seen what was done to
Nia:

When asked by Police why she had not taken her daughter to the
hospital, Lisa said she had did not have a vehicle and there was no
phone to call for help. When asked why she had not asked someone
who was coming for the party to take her she said:

List went on to say that she listened to Michael Curtis and Oriwa Kemp when they told her that Nia would be fine. She said,  however:

When asked Nia had been in bad shape on Saturday Lisa said:

She also said:

Before she was arrested, Lisa told the Detective Sergeant that she had
been asking herself over and over:

Lisa Kuka was allowed to visit Nia while she was in the hospital, 
though her visits were supervised. Kuka's other two children were 
taken away from her, her son, who was ten and her other daughter
who was eight, were taken into custody by the Child Youth And
Family Services and placed with another family member.

Lisa went out clubbing to get her mind off of things. She went with 
her sister Louise and some other people. Louise had this to say:
.

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 "I'm so angry with her. She knew. She knew"

Nia's paternal Grandfather, Glassie Glassie Sr., said what happened to her was disgusting. He said that Nia's father, Glassie Glassie Jr, was planning to return from New South Wales to be with Nia and that he little contact with Nia since she had moved from Tokoroa to Rotorua last year:

On August 3, 2008 at 4:12pm, Nia died at Starship Children's 
Hospital in Auckland. Nia had spent most of the week on a ventilator
and in a coma after the abuse she suffered. She never regained
consciousness before she died. Police stated that there would be a
post mortem examination of Nia's body, the next day.

Nia's maternal grandmother, Polly Kuka said that she was surprised
that Nia had died:

Polly added that Nia was now at peace and that she has offered her
daughter love, however, since she holds her daughter responsible for
what happened to Nia, she will not comfort her at all:

Outside of the court house, people protested prior to the hearing
beginning.

In court, Wiremu's lawyer had the NERVE to say to the jurors that
they should ignore feelings of disgust about what happened to Nia
saying this about the case:

Craig Horsley told the High Court that Wiremu admitted to the things
he did that contributed to Nia's death, however, hd did not have and
intent to murder her. He said that Wiremu was guilty of manslaughter
instead of murder. While he admitted that Wiremu's treatment of Nia
in the last days of her life was unacceptable he stated that it was:

Craig told the jury that in order to convict Wiremu of murder they
would need to be sure of the following:

* Wiremu kicked Nia in the head on the Friday evening the Crown
   alleged.

* That if he had kicked her, he intended to injure her.

* That he appreciated death was a likely consequence of his actions.

* And not withstanding that, he took the risk anyway.

This IDIOT, Craig Horsley, said that there was no medical evidence
to support that kicking a three year old child in the head, would kill
her. He also said that a pediatrician had stated that had Nia been 
taken to the hospital immediately, she most likely would have been
able to survive the abuse. I wonder if ANY of them considered that if
these people had NOT abused Nia, her chances at survival would have been 100% for sure!

Craig argued that the other assaults on Nia in the days that lead up to
her final day could have caused the subdural hematomas and that the
Crown had not excluded that as a possibility.

He said other assaults on the toddler in the days leading up to the Friday could have caused the subdural hematomas, or bleeding in her head, that killed her, and the Crown had failed to exclude this possibility. 

Witnesses had spoken of symptoms that were displayed by Nia which were consistent with having a head injury:

Craig stated that the clothesline incident had started out as a game 
and that Wiremu had only been watching.

Craig claimed that Wiremu intimidated by his brother and as a slow learner, he was easily led.

Craig then went on to attack the credibility of the child witnesses who
had given testimony of seeing Nia kicked in the head. He said that the
child had given false evidence saying that Nia was hot and had  a
bloody nose when she was taken out of the dryer. Craig claimed that
tests on the dryer had shown that the dryer would only spin twice 
with a child of that weight inside of it.

Jonathan Temm, the lawyer for Michael Curtis said that the evidence
given by the child was unreliable and that the fatal kicks had never
taken place. He argued that there was no bruising on Nia's head and
that the things the child witnessed were not supported by anyone else.

Jonathan also said that a series of events led to the decline of Nia
over those few days and that the wrestling moves performed on Nia,
though they were stupid, were lacking in criminal intent.

How could ANYONE defend the kind of scum who is capable of doing the things that were done to Nia and to ALL of the children in this world who are abused by people they love and trust? I just don't understand it.

William Curtis, the father of Wiremu and Michael said that his family
is upset about the verdicts his sons were given, he also said that
life must go on. Outside of the court house he said:

How can this man say that he feels sorry for Nia, when he abused her
himself?

Panama Le'au' Anae, Lisa's lawyer said that the verdicts which had
been reached were not unexpected:

Mr. Anae said that he had not yet discussed an appeal with Lisa, who was sentence to nine years for her part in the death of Nia:

Mr. Anae also said that Kuku had talked about her daughter during the trial and that she was clearly upset over losing her daughter.

Justice Judith Trotter broke down after the verdicts were read. She
also thanked the jury for their work and acknowledged that the four
week trial had taken a toll on all of them. She then offered them all
counseling and excused them. Radio New Zealand reported that her
voice began to break as she spoke and she started to cry.

Judith spoke about Lisa Kuka:

On November 18, 2008, after four weeks at trial, Wiremu, who was  19 years old by then and Michael Curtis, who was 22, were found guilty of the murder of Nia Glassie. For their crimes against Nia, the
court gave them each a RIDICULOUS sentence of 17 1/2 years in prison.

Lisa Kuka, who was 35 at the time, was found guilty on two counts of manslaughter for failing to protect and seek medical attention for Nia
when she needed it, her sentence was nine years in prison.

Michael Pearson, who was 20 at the time his girlfriend Oriwa Kemp,
who was 18, were found not guilty of manslaughter, however, they
were found guilty on other charges. They were sentenced to three 
years and three years four months, in prison.

Miremu, Michael Curtis, Michael Pearson and Oriwa were found guilty on ill treatment charges that related to the clothesline incident and also on general ill treatment charges, though Michael Pearson was not charged on the general ill treatment charges. Miremu and Michael Curtis both became upset  when the verdicts were read, prison guards had to restrain them.

Michael Pearson and Oriwa Kemp's lawyers had managed to distance
them from the worst of the abuse charges claiming they were not
directly involved and during the worst of the abuse, they were not 
even present.

Lisa's lawyer claimed that she was a hard working mother who only
wanted the best for her children and that she had made a big mistake
getting together with Wiremu, who was only 17 years old when she
met him.

Craig Horsley had this to say about the sentence:

Nia's aunt had this to say about the sentences:

On February 13, 2009, William Curtis, who was 50 years old at the time,  was found guilty of assault for the things he did to Nia, he was sentenced to ONLY four years for the abuse he gave her. The judge took ten minutes to decide what his sentence would be for the abuse. William showed NO emotion as the Judge, Phillip Cooper, told him his sentence.

William stood in the dock, with two corrections officers and smiled as
he waved to two relatives who were in the courtroom. Though Judge
Judith Potter had sentenced his sons last week and that had taken 
most of the day, Judge Phillip Cooper sentenced William so quickly 
that some of his family didn't have time to get to the court hearing
before he had finished. Outside, his partner Mary said:

I, personally, find it disgusting that ANYONE could want to be with a
man who could torture a child this was. What kind of a woman is this
Mary that a man could do what William did and she could love him
any way? It makes my stomach turn!

William was sentenced to three years on the charge of assault with a
weapon, which was the scarf he wrapped around Nia's neck and held
her off of the ground for several seconds until her faced turned purple. He was sentenced to a year for the other charges he faced for
back handing Nia and making her lip bleed, pushing her to the ground and shoving her into a wall while threatening to stomp on her head.
Williams lawyer, Harry Edwards agreed with the sentence of three
years for the main charge which carries a maximum sentence of ONLY five years. Harry Edwards asked the judge to be lenient with the other seven charges since his previous convictions were not for violent offenses, they were based on drunk while driving and dishonesty.

Crown Prosecutor Amanda Gordon believed that the sentence should
reflect the severity of the crime:

Judge Phillip Cooper pointed out that William was a step-grandfather
to Nia and that she had deserved to be nurtured by him. He stated
that William seemed to think that violence against children is an
acceptable thing:

William was ordered to serve the two terms cumulatively.

On March 3, 2009 or about that date, an appeal was filed on behalf
of Wiremu Curtis, by his lawyer, Craig Horsley. As of today, March 6,
2009, no date has been set for that trial.

Nia's father said at her funeral that he was going to remain in New
Zealand and try to gain custody of his three other children, a son and
two more daughters. He left New Zealand later, with any of them. The children have since been placed to live with other family members.

Lisa Kuka attended Nia's funeral and would not answer any questions
that the media had for her.

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