Warning: Distressing content.

It was a case that shook the nation. Nia Glassie was only 3 when her life was slowly and painfully taken following torture and abuse at the hands of people who were supposed to care for her. Now, 17 years on, her killers could be released from jail. Senior journalist Kelly Makiha reports.

In just a few weeks, brothers Michael and Wiremu Curtis are to go before the New Zealand Parole Board for the first time and ask to be released from prison.

They are about to end their life sentences with minimum non-parole periods of 17 and a half years for the murder of Nia Glassie in Rotorua on August 3, 2007.

On March 20 next year, Nia would have turned 21. But she never saw her fourth birthday.

Michael (left) and Wiremu Curtis.

Michael Curtis is set to go before the parole board on January 13 and Wiremu Curtis on the week starting February 24.

It will be a poignant time for Detective Sergeant Garry Hawkins of the Rotorua CIB, the lead detective who was instrumental in putting the Curtis brothers behind bars.

He and his colleague Detective Mahara Alcock were awarded a Silver Merit Commendation and a Commissioner’s Commendation respectively for their dedication to duty in their roles in the Glassie investigation that resulted in the guilty verdicts.

It was months of work because it didn’t concern just one person or one act of violence.

Five people were found guilty – including Nia’s mother, Te Puke kiwifruit worker Lisa Kuka, who was jailed for nine years for two charges of manslaughter after it was successfully proven she not only failed to protect Nia but also failed to get her medical treatment.

Two others, Oriwa Kemp and Michael Pearson, were also convicted and jailed for assaulting Nia.

Detective Sergeant Garry Hawkins. Photo / Alan Gibson

Hawkins said most police officers were parents and any offending involving children cut deep.

Hawkins said despite the national outcry, he didn’t think New Zealanders had learned.

“Things haven’t changed a lot. We are still getting children dying and families covering up for families ... Whenever a child falls victim to something like this, it brings up memories again, that’s for sure.”

Hawkins said he hoped the Curtis brothers emerged as better people.

“You’d hope they come out of prison with some form of reform and reintegrate back into society in a better way. But people who have had that sort of attitude towards children, does that ever change?”

The Nia Glassie tragedy

Kuka, who at the time was 34, left Nia and her sisters in the care of her 17-year-old boyfriend Wiremu Curtis and his 21-year-old brother while she went to work in Te Puke.

They lived in a rented home in Koutu’s Frank St where Michael Curtis’ girlfriend Oriwa Kemp, 17, also lived. Nia’s cousin Michael Pearson, 19, would also often be at the house.

Those jailed relating to Nia Glassie's abuse and death (from left): Lisa Kuka, Michael Curtis, Michael Pearson, Wiremu Curtis and Oriwa Kemp.

During the trial, it emerged the home was the scene of parties and alcohol and drug abuse. The wasted young people were left to look after the young children.

It was later revealed in court the Curtis brothers didn’t like Nia and inflicted acts of horrendous torture upon her which were witnessed by her young sisters in the months leading up to her death.

They would put Nia in a clothes dryer and spin her on a hot setting, hang her on a clothesline and spin her until she fell, hold her over a burning fire, drag her half-naked through a sandpit, throw her at walls and drop her from heights. It was while they were using her to practice wrestling moves that she was fatally kicked in the head.

But her death wasn’t quick. She was left for 33 hours before medical help was sought.

Her mother came home to find her daughter semi-conscious in a soiled bed. She bathed her and put her back to bed before celebrating Michael Curtis’ 21st birthday at the house while her daughter lay dying.

It wasn’t until the next day that Kuka took Nia to Rotorua Hospital. She died 13 days later on August 3, 2007.

Where are the others now?

Kuka was jailed for nine years on two counts of manslaughter – one for failing to provide the necessaries of life and the other for failing to protect her from violence, thereby causing her death.

Her parole board information, released to the Rotorua Daily Post, said she was refused parole in 2013 but was granted it in 2015.

She was recalled to prison shortly afterwards because she breached her release conditions by living at a house that had five young children present.

Michael Curtis (left) threatens Lisa Kuka, the mother of Nia Glassie, as they leave the dock in the Rotorua District Court in 2007. Photo / Stephen Parker

In January 2017, she was granted parole again despite a prison officer expressing concerns about her behaviour deteriorating in the weeks leading up to her hearing.

The officer said she wasn’t responding to authority positively and it was “her way or the highway”.

Latest parole board records show she had not been to prison since.

Kemp was jailed for three years for assaulting Nia and released in December 2010.

At age of 14, she had her first child, which was taken from her following her arrest for the offending concerning Nia.

Oriwa Kemp appears at Manukau District Court in 2017. Photo / Michael Craig

The NZ Herald reported in 2018 that Kemp had four more children – with all of them being taken from her by authorities when they were born.

Between having her children, she was in and out of court on charges relating to her partner and father of her children, a man who was 30 years her senior.

She pleaded guilty to assaulting him when she was four months’ pregnant – but at the same time, he was before the courts for assaults on her.

New Zealand Parole Board records show she wasn’t jailed again.

Michael Pearson. Photo / Stephen Parker

Pearson was jailed for three years for charges relating to cruelty and assaulting Nia and was released in July 2010.

Documents released to the Rotorua Daily Post showed he failed in his attempts to be paroled given his risk of reoffending and unsatisfactory behaviour in prison that saw him incur five misconducts.

New Zealand Parole Board records show he wasn’t jailed again.

What to do if you think a child is being abused

If you believe a child is in immediate danger, call police on 111.

If you’re worried about a child and want to make a referral or report of concern, call on Oranga Tamariki on 0508 FAMILY (0508 326 459) or email contact@ot.govt.nz

-Bay of Plenty Times