Boy killed because he misbehaved: court

A man who killed his partner's three-year-old son after the boy was "being a terror" will return to a Melbourne court.

Just a month away from his fourth birthday Zane Bradbury died in hospital in May last year.

His mother's partner had thrown him onto a bed, causing the boy to fatally bash his head against a wall.

Brok Ronald Hughes, 26, of Glenroy, was charged with murdering the boy, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and two charges of intentionally causing injury, in a plea hearing on Monday.

The hearing will continue in front of Supreme Court Justice Michael Croucher on Wednesday.