The Christian pop music producer allegedly described himself as a "Saviour" and claimed he was training his girlfriend's seven-year-old son to be a "soldier for Christ".
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But the NSW Supreme Court heard on Wednesday that Kodi James Maybir subjected the youngster to repeated acts of violent abuse and then murdered him in his southern Sydney recording studio.
On the first day of Mr Maybir's trial for murder and 13 other charges, Crown prosecutor Chris Maxwell, QC, said that the accused had killed the little boy by inflicting blunt force trauma to his head some time before May 21, 2013.
"When ambulance officers arrived they found that the boy was deceased and appeared to have been deceased for some time," Mr 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 murder had allegedly followed months of abuse carried out or ordered by Mr Maybir in accordance with a "bizarre" religion-inspired discipline regime.
This had begun some months earlier when Mr Maybir became involved with the child's mother, Kayla James.
Mr Maxwell said James had already been convicted and sentenced for manslaughter by gross criminal negligence over the death of her son and would give evidence against Mr Maybir in the trial.
The court heard that soon after the pair began their relationship, the young woman came under the influence of her partner's "bizarre" Christian philosophy, while the accused saw himself as "the controller and director of the family unit".
The Crown outlined the last few months of the little boy's life, describing a series of assaults – many of them under the guise of punishments and many recorded by Mr Maybir or James on a 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," Mr Maxwell said.
In one video, Mr Maybir allegedly directs the boy's siblings to repeatedly strike him in an apparent punishment for not dealing properly with his food.
The accused is heard directing the children to repeatedly hit their brother in the stomach and face and then laughing as they carry out his orders.
"Oh, it's fun, you're having fun," Mr Maybir allegedly says on the video.
On another occasion, Mr Maybir allegedly instructs James to repeatedly spank her son with a wooden plank until the skin on his buttocks blisters and breaks.
Mr Maxell said Mr Maybir also attempted to force the seven-year-old and his younger siblings to say that their grandfather had been sexually abusing them even though this had "had no basis or justification in fact".
On a number of occasions the accused tried to convince the children to say on camera that they had been abused, describing this abuse as "the purple skin game".
In one of these incidents he allegedly attempted to get the seven-year-old to demonstrate an indecent assault on his younger brother while recording it on a mobile phone.
This was an attempt by the accused, the Crown said, to isolate himself, James and her children from their relatives.
"It is the Crown case that the entire interview process is demonstrative of Mr Maybir engaging in leading questioning of two children who do not appear to understand the line of questioning or what is being asked of them," Mr Maxwell said.
Mr Maybir has pleaded not guilty to murder. He has pleaded guilty to six of the other charges, including assault and using the boy to produce child abuse material.
