Ward clerk heard Nia's mother tell of abuse

Lisa Kuka. Photo / Rotorua Daily Post

A ward clerk at the Starship hospital overheard Nia Glassie's mother saying she saw Nia being thrown across a room into a wall.

Robyn Armstrong yesterday told the High Court at Rotorua she overheard Lisa Kuka telling someone on a hospital phone that she also saw Nia's head being placed between a man's knees and hit on the floor three times.

Kuka was heard saying the abuse was inflicted on Nia "because he said she was ugly and won't listen".

Ms Armstrong said the conversation made her feel sick and she later wrote down what she had heard and told police.

Testifying at the trial of Kuka and four others accused of killing 3-year-old Nia, Ms Armstrong said she took a phone call for Kuka from a woman in Australia, and was sitting an arm's length from her when Kuka picked up the receiver.

Ms Armstrong said she could hear yelling on the other end of the line at the start, and Kuka replied, "Hang on a minute, hang on a minute, it wasn't me."

After a pause, Kuka then allegedly said, "I saw it happen. I saw it. I was there."

Ms Armstrong said there was another pause before Kuka said: "He put her head between his knees and he hit her head on the floor three times.

"He threw her across the room and she hit the wall because he said she was ugly and won't listen."

Ms Armstrong was deeply upset by what she heard and said she "turned around and went into a back room because I thought I was going to be sick".

Under cross-examination, the ward clerk said there had been no mistaking what Kuka said because she was speaking slowly, calmly and quite loudly.

Later that day a nurse who was looking after Nia told Ms Armstrong no one was sure how Nia's injuries had occurred because no one in Nia's family was talking.

"My reaction was 'Mum saw it' ... I was really upset about it, moreupset when I realised no one knew about it."

It was then that she wrote her notes about the conversation and told police.

Kuka, 35, is charged with Nia's manslaughter and has denied failing to get her daughter medical treatment and failing to protect her from violence.

It is alleged that Kuka's boyfriend, Wiremu Curtis, aged 19, and his brother Michael, 22, murdered the toddler.

Michael's girlfriend, Oriwa Kemp, 18, and Nia's cousin Michael Pearson, 20, are also charged with the 3-year-old's manslaughter.

It was revealed in evidence yesterday that Kuka had been in a relationship with Wiremu's and Michael's older brother, Shane (also known asJules), before she began seeing Wiremu.