KEY POINTS:
A south Auckland couple disposed of several weapons they used to beat the woman's three-year-old son to death, a jury was told today.
Crown prosecutor Ross Burns was making his closing address at the trial in the High Court in 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 a number of implements found in the house, including a vacuum cleaner pipe and oar handle, caused the injuries found on the boy.
This was due to the nature of the boy's bruises and a lack of forensic evidence.
"Nothing was found to have DNA you would expect to find on most things, with the exception of the baseball bat. Yet we can see bruises all over the boy's arm," Mr Burns said.
"What we might conclude is that the real weapons were disposed of before the police got there."
Mr Burns said the boy's DNA was found on the baseball bat and the jury should conclude he had been struck by it.
He said the Crown rejected the view of pathologist James Ferris, a defence witness who said the boy died of a brain injury he first received 5-10 days before he died.
There was strong evidence to suggest that the effects of extensive soft tissue injury caused by blows to the boy handed out by both accused had killed him, Mr Burns said.
The woman's lawyer John Rowan QC and the man's lawyer Eddie Paul will give their closing addresses tomorrow. The jury is expected to retire on Thursday.
- NZPA
