KEY POINTS:
A South Auckland couple disposed of several weapons with which they beat the woman's 3-year-old son to death, a jury has heard.
Crown prosecutor Ross Burns was making his closing address at the trial in the High Court at Auckland of a 32-year-old mother and her 27-year-old partner.
The Otara couple have denied murder, wilful ill-treatment and manslaughter by failing to seek medical treatment quickly enough following the boy's death on February 1 last year. Their names are suppressed.
Mr Burns told the jury that doctors had said they could not decide whether the implements found in the house, including a vacuum cleaner pipe and oar handle, caused the injuries found on the boy.
Mr Burns said: "What we might conclude is that the real weapons were disposed of before the police got there."
He said the boy's DNA had been found on the bat and the jury should conclude he had been struck by it.
- NZPA
