A 29-year-old man has appeared in court accused of four months of neglect and violent abuse against a seven-year-old boy, up until the day the boy supposedly died in a pogo stick accident.
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In court, prosecutor Sergeant Alisa Flint said the allegations were ''atrocious'' and at the highest level of criminality, with evidence that some of the abuse had been videoed.
The court also heard the allegations of abuse were reported to authorities in March.
Court documents allege the man subjected the boy to multiple assaults; withheld food and water; forced the boy to run along Bulli Beach until he collapsed from exhaustion and then beat him with a stick on March 31.
The Woodpark man, whose name and the name of the boy were suppressed by order of the court, was charged with 25 child abuse offences after the boy died, reportedly after falling off a pogo stick in May.
In a statement to police at the time, the boy's mother allegedly said ''the boy fell off a pogo stick and hit his head while playing inside the unit and lost consciousness'' the day before.
The man was arrested at Fairfield Police Station on Friday after a three-month investigation.
No charges have been laid in relation to the boy's death.
Police said the boy was found dead in the bedroom of an Oatley unit about 6.30am on May 21.
One of the neglect charges against the man alleged that ''having parental responsibility, without reasonable excuse failed to provide [the boy] with the necessities of life'' for two months between March 16 and the day the boy died.
Another neglect charge alleged mistreatment of the boy for four months until the day he died.
Two other charges related to the neglect of two other children allegedly in the accused's care.
The man applied for bail at Parramatta Bail Court but magistrate Paul Lyon refused it on Saturday.
The accused's defence lawyer, Carl Minette, said some information in documents tended to court were based on opinion.
Mr Lyon said the charges showed the serious mistreatment of a person by way of violence.
The dead child's siblings are now in the care of authorities. The matter was adjourned to Parramatta Local Court on September 26.
