Son, 7, 'stiff and cold': NSW court hears

On the morning Kayla James says she woke to find her son "stiff and cold", his accused murderer allegedly told her to blame it on a pogo stick.

Sydney mother Kayla James says she knew for 12 hours her seven-year-old son was seriously injured but simply ordered pizza and went to bed.

The next morning, she tried to rouse him by calling his name.

"I pulled the blanket down and started rubbing his shoulder, and he was stiff and cold, and that's when I started to get worried," James told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

James is serving more than 10 years for the manslaughter of her son after she failed to get him medical attention when he was injured in May 2013 at the Oatley music studio of her then boyfriend Kodi Maybir.

Christian hip-hop producer Maybir has pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis of criminal negligence but denies the assertion by the Crown that he murdered the boy.

Giving evidence at his trial, James recalled how on May 19, 2013, the seven-year-old, who cannot be named, was made to squat against a wall for up to three hours with his arms outstretched as punishment for "lying".

"He was exhausted, he kept falling," she said.

While this was happening, she said Maybir read her son passages from the Bible.

The following morning, James said she got up early to make breakfast for her son and two other children when she heard a "scratch and thud as if something was being scraped against the floor".

"I thought of Mr Maybir getting upset because there was noise already," she told the court.

A few minutes later, Maybir came into the kitchen with her seven-year-old in his arms.

"I was calling (my son's) name trying to rouse him ... His eyes were rolled back and he had a bit of froth on the corner of his mouth," she said.

When she asked Maybir what happened, he told her the boy had fallen over.

As the hours passed, she said he struggled to even moan.

"Did it occur to you then that he may be extremely seriously injured?" crown prosecutor Chris Maxwell QC asked.

"Yes," she replied, adding she was "afraid to know" that her son needed to be taken to hospital.

"I was afraid of finally putting Maybir in a position with the police."

Despite her son's serious condition, she said they ordered pizza and went to bed about 11.30pm.

At that time she "couldn't tell" if her son was still breathing.

The next day, on May 21, she awoke about 5.30am to find her son stiff and cold.

When she told Maybir she was going to call an ambulance, she said he instructed her to tell them the boy had fallen off a pogo stick.

The trial continues.


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Source: AAP



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