Accused mother says Nia was spoiled and adored

Lisa Kuka says she really spoilt Nia Glassie, her sixth and last child, after the little girl was born in 2004.

"She was my life," Kuka - on trial for Nia's manslaughter - told a detective in a video-taped interview played yesterday at the High Court in Rotorua.

Nia died at Auckland's Starship hospital on August 3 last year, 12 days after being taken to Rotorua Hospital in a coma. Doctors have told the court they may have been able to save her had she received medical treatment sooner.

Kuka said she hadn't wanted any more children. Her oldest son lived with his father, a daughter was adopted by Kuka's sister at age 2, and she already had three children with Glassie Glassie, her then partner.

When Nia was a few months old her parents' 11-year relationship broke up and Glassie moved to Australia.

The interview continued to canvass Kuka's numerous moods with the children and short-term relationships, including one with an older brother of Wiremu Curtis, who was to become her partner at age 17, when she was 32.

He and his brother Michael Curtis are charged with Nia's murder.

Kuka said when she began living with Wiremu Curtis, at her brother's home in Tauranga, and later at her father's home in Rotorua, Wiremu "just adored Nia".

- NZPA