An Auckland toddler was murdered by his grandma because he was too hard to toilet train and she was irritable from smoking methamphetamine, prosecutors say.
Kathleen Elizabeth Cooper, 65, is standing trial in the High Court accused of murder by throwing her grandson down the hallway of their Manurewa home after a toileting accident on December 13, 2015.
Suffering serious head injuries, two-year-old Jermain Mason Ngawhau was rushed to Starship Hospital for emergency surgery, but died five days later.
Closing the Crown case on Friday, prosecutor Aaron Perkins QC said Cooper had volunteered to care for her troubled daughter's four children, all aged under 5, but gradually became overwhelmed by the challenge.
She took to regularly hitting them, with Jermain - whose delayed development made him slow to walk and learn to use the toilet - found to be covered in numerous old and fresh bruises, he said.