A Christian musician and music producer has pleaded not guilty to murder charges after he was accused of killing his girlfriend’s seven-year-old son by subjecting him to a “regime” of constant abuse, which included refusing food and physical abuse.
As ABC News reports, 31-year-old Kodi Maybir, who performs under the stage name Kopri, subjected the boy to a “Spartan-like regime” in the months leading up to his death, which involved him being repeatedly hit, yelled at, refused food, and forced to run until exhausted.
The boy was found dead in an Oatley unit in Sydney’s south back in May 2013. An autopsy revealed the child had suffered skull fractures and subsequent brain swelling. The boy’s mother, Kayla James, is in jail after pleading guilty to the boy’s manslaughter in June.
Meanwhile, Maybir, who ran a Christian music studio out of his home, is facing 14 charges, including multiple common assault charges. He has pleaded guilty to six of them and his trial is expected to last six weeks.
James and her three young children moved into Maybir’s unit, which he had converted into a music studio, about four months before her son died. A crown prosecutor told the court that it was the start of an extended period of abuse.
“Evidence will show the accused very substantially controlled [Kayla James] and introduced her to a bizarre system of controlling her family, which she went along with,” crown prosecutor Christopher Maxwell QC said during his opening address.
Prosecutors also told that court that evidence will show Maybir “held extreme beliefs concerning religion… one which seemed to be eliminating the devil from people”. The court heard that Maybir forced the seven-year-old to wear nappies because there was no bathroom in the studio.
“Ms James will say at times the accused instructed that [the boy], who had previously been toilet trained, should remain in nappies” so he didn’t have to take him to the building’s shared toilet, Mr Maxwell explained.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Christian hip-hop musician allegedly described himself as a “saviour” and claimed he was training his girlfriend’s son to be a “soldier for Christ”.
Among the allegations made against Maybir, the prosecutor cited witnesses who saw Maybir abusing the boy during a family camping trip in Bulli, south of Sydney, in March 2013. Witnesses saw the boy sitting outside the family’s tent early in the morning, in 16 degree Celsius weather, sobbing.
A male voice could reportedly be heard calling out from the tent “that’s what happens when you shit yourself, you stay out there”, Mr Maxwell said. “Witnesses will say he had to wear his underpants on his head as punishment,” Mr Maxwell added.
The boy was also reportedly subjected to a gruelling physical “regime”, which involved running until exhausted, with Maybir hitting him with a stick and berating him as he ran. One witness also said the boy was denied food and drink.
When asked why, Maybir said “he was going commando-style” and that it was “aimed at making him stronger, and to build him into a man”. Maybir told one man that he shaved off the boys hair and eyebrows to make him “like Neo from the Matrix and make him like a soldier”.
