Sio, 25, was sentenced in the High Court at Rotorua on Friday to life imprisonment with 17 years' non-parole after previously admitting a range of charges including murdering his son, abusing him and ill-treating him.
Rawiri, 29, has admitted charges relating to ill-treating and neglecting Ferro-James, assaulting him and failing to get medical care. She will be sentenced at a later date.
At the hearing, Justice Ian Gault read out the police's summary of facts which detailed the 16 months of cruel treatment the little boy endured.
On February 8 last year, he was beaten by his father in a cramped room in emergency accommodation in Rotorua and was kicked so severely it literally took his breath away.
The kicks were so hard, the internal bruising was similar to "bleeding out".
The little boy was holed up in that tiny room alongside the two people who should have been caring for him.
A car parked outside the Rotorua Courthouse. Photo / Andrew Warner
Instead, Rawiri told police she was asleep while Sio was slowly killing him.
All of that is bad. It's horrific. It makes you gasp: how someone could do that to anyone, let alone a defenceless child?
But this is what I can't stop thinking about: Ferro-James was cold and limp - probably already dead - when they wrapped him in a blanket and drove him to hospital.
He lay in the backseat by himself while they sat in the front.
He was alone.
There are so many questions that remain unanswered around that wee boy's killing.
