A man caused his girlfriend's toddler to die a slow and agonising death after punching him in the stomach.
Mason Lee was hit him hard by his mum's partner, William Andrew O'Sullivan, he suffered a prolapsed anus and a ruptured intestine, causing faeces to leak into his abdomen.
The 22-month-old endured vomiting and fever for days, before finally dying at O'Sullivan's home near Brisbane, Australia, in 2016.
O'Sullivan and the boy's mother, Anne-Maree Lee, were both sentenced to nine years in jail.
A pre-inquest hearing was held this week in relation to Mason's death, shedding new light on his horrific injuries.
A post-mortem found he had suffered a broken tailbone, broken leg and a ruptured small intestine, which slowly poisoned him.
Whenever he cried in pain and vomited, O'Sullivan would shout at him to "shut up".
The Sun reports that Megan Jarvis, counsel assisting the coroner, said Mason would have been in pain, feverish, vomiting, dehydrated, pale, lethargic and struggling to stay conscious and breathe normally in his final days.
She said: "It would have been obvious to any normal person he was very sick and in urgent need of medical attention."
O'Sullivan, who was described as a 'crackhead' at his trial, finally called paramedics after Mason had died.
The youngster's blood was found to contain traces of methamphetamine.
The upcoming inquest into the tot's death will try to understand how child protection officers failed to prevent the abuse.
