In the brief time a seven-year-old Sydney boy knew his alleged murderer, he was hit with a spatula, had his eyebrows shaved off and was chased with a stick, the crown says.
The acts were among many of the "bizarre" parenting techniques Christian hip-hop producer Kodi Maybir allegedly instituted after meeting the boy's mum in January 2013.
On the opening day of Maybir's trial on Wednesday, the 31-year-old pleaded guilty to six offences, including assaulting his then girlfriend Kayla James's eldest child.
But Maybir has pleaded not guilty to murdering the seven-year-old boy in May 2013 and also denies seven other charges, including causing him actual bodily harm.
Crown prosecutor Christopher Maxwell QC told the Supreme Court that Maybir met James in January 2013.
Within days she had moved into his studio at Oatley in Sydney's south where Maybir - known by the stage name Kopri - produced music.
Soon after James began adopting some of Maybir's "extreme" religious views - one of which seemed to be "eliminating the devil from people", Mr Maxwell said.
She also began following his "bizarre" system of controlling her children, which included "varying kinds of punishment... particularly directed at" the eldest, now dead, boy.
The "regime", the jury heard, was captured on a series of videos taken in the months leading up to his death.
In one video from March 16, the boy's younger siblings were instructed to hit the seven-year-old.
Using a line from the Spartan movie 300, Maybir allegedly asks them: "Soldiers what is your profession?"
The abuse on the boy allegedly continued when the family went to a caravan part at Bulli Beach south of Sydney just weeks later.
On March 29, Mr Maxwell said witnesses saw the boy sitting outside a tent "distressed and quietly sobbing".
They allege Maybir was heard calling out: "Stop crying. If you didn't wet yourself you wouldn't be out there".
In other assaults at the park, it is alleged Maybir hit the boy with a spatula and chased him with a stick, kicked him and threatened that if he didn't stop running he would be hit.
Maybir also allegedly told a friend he had shaved off the boy's eyebrows and hair to make him look like "Neo" from the film The Matrix.
The boy's mother, the jury heard, has been sentenced over the boy's manslaughter and is expected to give evidence at Maybir's trial.
The crown prosecutor will continue his opening address on Thursday.
