Guilty: Kodi Maybir. Relatives of the victim cried in relief as the verdict of guilty of murder was read out. Maybir did not react, although he waved and nodded at his two female supporters as he was taken down from the dock by Corrective Services officers. Crown prosecutor Christopher Maxwell, QC, handed up Maybir's criminal record, which includes two breaches of an apprehended violence order. He received good behaviour bonds both times.

Kodi James Maybir: Guilty of murdering a seven-year-old boy. Maybir's barrister, Grant Brady, asked for at least six weeks to prepare sentencing submissions, saying he wanted to have his client assessed psychiatrically. During the course of the six-week trial, the court heard that Maybir, a Christian hip-hop producer, had subjected the youngster to repeated acts of violent abuse under the guise of "punishment" before murdering him at his southern Sydney recording studio some time before May 21, 2013. The seven-year-old boy who died of his injuries. The fatal injuries had taken the form of severe blunt force trauma inflicted on the front and back of the little boy's skull.

"He's always on that pogo stick," Maybir told police on May 21 after the boy's body had been taken away. "He just fell off ... hit the back of his head. We kept an eye on him all day, he mainly just lay in the bed." Maybir subsequently pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the boy's death, but this plea was rejected by the Crown, which insisted he was guilty of murder. The murder had allegedly followed months of abuse carried out or ordered by Maybir in accordance with a "bizarre" discipline regime inspired by religion and a movie about Spartan soldiers called 300. The abuse had begun about four months earlier, when Maybir became involved with the child's mother, Kayla James.

James has already been convicted and sentenced to at least 10½ years' jail for manslaughter by gross criminal negligence over the death of her son for failing to seek any medical assistance until after he was dead. Giving evidence at his trial in return for a reduction in her sentence, she said she had come under the influence of her partner's "bizarre" Christian philosophy, allowing him to punish her child violently and inflicting similar punishments herself. A number of the punishments are recorded on a mobile phone video, either by Maybir or James, including one incident in which the boy's siblings were ordered to take turns hitting him in the stomach and the face. On other occasions he was also forced to run laps, crouch on the floor with his arms outstretched for hours on end, and repeatedly spanked, slapped and punched. Maybir's defence claimed that James was the main perpetrator of violence against her son, and that the accused had come under her influence because he was infatuated by her.

The killer later claimed that he had accidentally inflicted the fatal injuries when a wrestling move that involved throwing the boy across the room on to a couch had gone wrong. "As I launched him, his hand was on my shirt and he just went straight to the ground in front of me," Maybir told the court. "How hard?" Mr Brady asked. "Real hard," Maybir replied, bursting into a brief sob. During cross-examination, Mr Maxwell put it to Maybir that he was a liar and that he had intended to hurt the child.

"This is not about discipline, this is about you, Kodi Maybir, deciding 'I'm going to hurt this little child'?" Mr Maxwell asked. "No," Maybir replied. But the jury did not believe him. He was also found guilty of inciting the seven-year-old child to commit an act of indecency on another child, which was filmed, on March 8, 2013. He was found not guilty of two assaults on the seven-year-old on March 17, guilty of assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm at Bulli on March 31 and guilty of producing child abuse material on May 19.

Outside the court, Detective Sergeant Trent Power said the case was "absolutely" one of the worst he had ever investigated. "Obviously we're very happy with the result today but it is still a very sad day that the family of this little boy has to live on without his memory of the beautiful little boy that he was. "I'd also like to thank the great team of detectives that worked tirelessly and with so much passion on this case. "I'm extremely proud of the detectives who have worked through this awful, awful case." Sentencing submissions will be heard on February 19.