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A judge took only 10 minutes yesterday to decide the fate of the man who abused 3-year-old Nia Glassie, sentencing him to four years in prison for "inexplicable and incomprehensible violence".
The father of the two men who murdered the toddler showed no emotion in the Rotorua District Court as Judge Phillip Cooper set the punishment.
Dressed in black clothing and wearing his signature mullet haircut, William Curtis smiled and waved at two relatives sitting in the public gallery. He stood in the dock flanked by two Corrections officers.
Curtis's sons Michael and Wiremu were last week sentenced to 17 years for murdering the toddler.
Her death followed months of torment, which included putting her in a tumble drier and spinning her on a clothes line at a house on Frank St, Rotorua, where the two men, Nia and her mother Lisa Kuka - Wiremu's partner - lived with several others.
William Curtis committed his abuse earlier, when the family lived at his house on James St.
Justice Judith Potter last week took most of the day to sentence the Curtis brothers, Kuka and two others - Oriwa Kemp and Michael Pearson - on various charges.
But yesterday the sentencing of William Curtis was over so quickly that several of the 50-year-old's family members did not get to the court room before it was over, leaving his partner Mary outside asking, "What did he get?"
Curtis had denied eight assault charges but was found guilty by a jury in December.
Yesterday, he was sentenced to three years in jail on the main charge of assault with a weapon - he wrapped a scarf around Nia's neck and held her off the ground for 10 seconds, making her face go purple - and a year for the other charges. The two terms are to be served cumulatively.
The court earlier heard that Curtis had back-handed Nia, making her lip bleed, pushed her to the ground and towards a wall and threatened to stomp on her head.
Defence lawyer Harry Edwards said there was no dispute his client should receive at least three years for the lead charge - which carries a maximum sentence of five.
But he asked the judge to take into account when considering penalties for the other seven charges the fact that Curtis's previous convictions were not for violence offences but drink-driving and dishonesty offences.
Crown prosecutor Amanda Gordon said the sentence needed to reflect the severity of the offending.
"There was no reason for the assault. Nia was simply sitting or playing, doing nothing to inspire any anger from the prisoner."
Judge Cooper said Curtis was a step-grandfather to Nia and she was entitled to be nurtured.
"He seems to think violence against a child is acceptable."
And he told Curtis: "For no apparent reason you would walk over to her and push her to the ground. This would happen often. This child was in your house. She was defenceless and vulnerable. She was the target of inexplicable and incomprehensible violence."