Christian Music Producer Accused Of Murdering Girlfriend's Son

Christian music producer Kodi James Maybir has been accused of murdering his girlfriend's son following months of abuse, which included repeatedly hitting and abusing the child, as well as not allowing him to eat food. 

As Fairfax reports, Maybir allegedly claims he was training the seven-year-old to be a "soldier for Christ", though yesterday in court he pleaded not guilty to the murder of the child who was found dead in a unit in Sydney's south west in May 2013. 

Maybir, who was known by his rapper alias of Kopri, is facing 14 charges including murder, though he is only pleading guilty to six of the charges.

Crown Prosecutor Chris Maxwell claims that Maybir had killed the child by "inflicting blunt force trauma" to his head sometime before his death.

"When ambulance officers arrived they found that the boy was deceased and appeared to have been deceased for some time," Maxwell said.

"It is the Crown case that Mr Maybir in some fashion assaulted the seven-year-old causing significant blunt force injuries with fractures to the skull." 

The court heard yesterday that the child's mother became influenced by Maybir's "bizarre" religion-inspired discipline, while Maybir referred to himself as "the controller and director of the family unit".   

A number of the assaults were recorded by Maybir on the boy's mother's mobile phone. 

"In these videos the deceased was the subject either of discipline measures or some kind of target or participant in his extreme attempt at building discipline," Maxwell said.

Some of the disturbing footage captured allegedly shows Maybir instructing the boy's siblings to hit him in the stomach for not dealing properly with his food as he laughs while they assault their brother. 

Another video depicts the mother repeatedly spanking the boy with a wooden plank until his skin blisters. 

The trial is expected to last around six weeks.