By SCOTT INGLIS
Liotta Leuta told his mother he wasn't hungry.
This angered her, so she smacked him a few times. The five-year-old then ate his dinner.
But his mother did not stop there. She got a vehicle fan belt and an aerial wire from the garage and whipped him at least 165 times - ultimately killing him.
Another chapter in the sad story of the short life of Liotta Leuta was written yesterday when his mother, Sipea Leuta, pleaded guilty to his manslaughter in South Auckland last October.
The 30-year-old unemployed Otara woman appeared in the Manukau District Court before Judge Charles Blackie, and was remanded in custody until March 9 for sentencing in the High Court at Auckland.
The Leuta case is the latest in a line of high-profile child abuse cases, but came as a surprise to those who knew the family.
The summary of facts was not read in court, but details of the horrific crime have since emerged.
The last hours of Liotta's life were on the night of Wednesday, October 4, when he was home at Don Place, Otara, with his mother, taxi driver father Lolani, and his elder sister and three brothers, all aged between one and eight.
After being smacked and eating his dinner, Liotta was sent to his sister's bedroom to read the Bible.
But his mother was enraged because she thought he had lied about not being hungry, and went to the garage, where she got the fan belt and aerial wire.
She cut the looped fan belt to make a metre-long length, went into the bedroom and began whipping Liotta with the aerial wire.
She then dragged him into his own bedroom, where she continued to whip him with both weapons.
Most of his body was left purple with welts. He was hit so many times doctors could not determine the exact number of blows.
Sipea Leuta then put her boy to bed. When he later complained of a sore stomach, she rubbed baby oil on it and gave him a drink, which made him vomit.
A short time later, about 1 am, he was heard coughing and his father went to check on him. Liotta was unconscious and died in his father's arms. The cause of death was soft tissue damage, complicated by Liotta inhaling his own vomit.
The family - members of the Samoan Unity Christian Church - did not ring for an ambulance or the police.
Instead, they called their minister, Reti Filipo, who came to the house. He called the police, and a shift sergeant arrived at 4.40 am, followed by the South Auckland crime squad.
The next day, police carried Liotta's body from the family's pale yellow, three-bedroom weatherboard house.
The other children were taken away by authorities.
Detective Sergeant Brett Pakenham, the officer in charge of the case, said it was one of the worst child abuse cases he had seen.
Sipea and her husband came to New Zealand from Samoa in 1988.
There was no evidence of any child abuse in the family and no one knows why Sipea snapped that night.
But one theory centres around Liotta - the third eldest - being sent to live with his grandmother in Samoa when he was a month old.
He had just returned to New Zealand to go to school when he died, and those close to the case believe the lack of bond between mother and child could have played a part.
The Herald has learned that Sipea was under enormous stress at the time but the reasons for that stress are unclear.
Her lawyer, David Niven, would not comment.
The leader of the family's church, who refused to be named, said no one in the congregation or the family foresaw the boy's death.
"This came as a shock to us," he said. "They are a very good family. Sipea is a very caring mother to her children."
Asked if Liotta's being raised in Samoa and not having bonded with his mother had somehow played a role in the beating, he replied: "I think that probably affected the relationship, but I can't give any specific reason ... There was nothing wrong between Sipea and the rest of the kids."
The church leader had met Liotta once, and described him as a quiet, shy boy.
The editor of the Samoan Post newspaper, Tanupo Aukuso, said it was a tradition in some Samoan families for a boy - often the eldest - to be sent back to the homeland and be raised by grandparents.
Sometimes this was done to maintain links with the grandparents, or for financial reasons.
"Maybe the kid's been away for some time and behaves differently? This is a very unusual situation ... Perhaps the only person who knows is the mother."
Herald Online feature: Violence at home
Boy, 5, slain by mother's deadly rage
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