This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/31/liam-fee-mother-rachel-trelfa-and-partner-convicted-of-murder

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Liam Fee's mother and her civil partner convicted of his murder Liam Fee's mother and her civil partner convicted of his murder
(about 3 hours later)
A mother and her civil partner have been convicted of murdering her two-year-old son. It was the courage of two little boys in detailing the horrific abuse they had suffered that proved key in convicting the mother and civil partner of a two-year-old boy with his murder.
Liam Fee was found dead at his home near Glenrothes in Fife on 22 March 2014, having suffered a ruptured heart as a result of severe blunt-force trauma to his body. Liam Fee’s mother, Rachel Trelfa (or Fee), 31, and her civil partner, Nyomi Fee, 29, had denied killing the toddler and falsely accused another child in their care of causing the death.
His mother, Rachel Trelfa, also known as Fee, 31, and her partner, Nyomi Fee, 29, had denied killing the child but were convicted of his murder after a seven-week trial at the high court in Livingston. Liam was found dead at his home near Glenrothes in Fife on 22 March 2014, having suffered a ruptured heart as a result of severe blunt force trauma.
The women, originally of Ryton, Tyne and Wear, were also found guilty of abuse against two other young boys, including one they falsely blamed for Liam’s death. The couple were convicted of all eight charges they faced – in addition to the murder charge, they were found guilty of assaulting Liam over a period of more than two years prior to his death. The jury also convicted them of four charges detailing a string of abuses against two other boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
The couple were convicted of all eight charges they faced, with a majority verdict returned on the murder charge after about 10 hours of deliberations by the jury. Following the couple’s conviction, police revealed the “complex and challenging” investigation that involved interviewing the two primary school-age children – who were both present in the house on the night that Liam died – to establish the level of abuse and neglect to which they and Liam had been subjected.
In addition to the murder charge, they were found guilty of assaulting Liam over a period of more than two years prior to his death. Praising the boys’ courage, DI Rory Hamilton of Police Scotland’s major investigation team east said: “Details of Liam’s murder and the abuse carried out by the two women emerged during the course of interviews with two other boys in their care.”
They were convicted of ill-treating and neglecting him from January 2012 onwards by leaving him for prolonged periods of time, failing to provide him with adequate exercise and mental stimulation and, in the days leading up to his death, failing to get him proper medical attention for a broken leg and a fractured arm. “During joint interviews with specially trained detectives and officials from Fife council, the evidence began to build towards a picture of horrendous abuse which directly contributed to the version of events being put forward by the two accused being utterly discredited.”
The jury also convicted them of four charges of abuse against two other boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons. These included forcing the boys to take cold showers when they wet the bed, imprisoning one in a homemade cage and tying another naked to a chair in a dark room where snakes and rats were kept. During the seven-week trial at the high court in Livingston the jury heard how the couple immediately tried to shift the blame for Liam’s death on to one of the other children in the house, telling a 999 operator that he had strangled the toddler.
The women were further found guilty of attempting to defeat the ends of justice after Liam died by, among other things, trying to pin the blame for the death on one of the young boys. James Graham, an ambulance technician who was first to attend at the couple’s home within minutes of the emergency call, told the jury that Nyomi Fee had shouted at another young boy: “You tell these men what you’ve done.”
The women showed little emotion as the two verdicts were returned. Liam’s father Joseph Johnson was in tears as he left the court. Graham added: “He just stood there with a look to say, ‘I don’t know what I’ve done but it must be bad.’”
During seven weeks of distressing evidence, the court heard that Liam suffered heart injuries similar to those found on road crash victims after a severe blunt-force trauma to his chest and abdomen. The two women, originally of Ryton, Tyne and Wear, were also found guilty of a catalogue of abuse against Liam and the two other boys.
The pathologist who examined his lifeless body also found more than 30 external injuries on the toddler’s body and fractures to the boy’s upper arm and thigh. Paediatric pathologist Dr Paul French told the court that Liam almost certainly spent his last few days in agony after finding fractures to the boy’s upper arm and thigh, likely sustained in separate events in the hours and days before he died. He listed more than 30 external injuries found on the toddler’s body, most of them “in keeping with blunt force trauma”.
Several members of the jury wept as a police video showing the toddler’s body was viewed by the court. In evidence consistent with the pathologist’s findings, the court also heard how mobiles belonging to the two accused were used to carry out internet searches on subjects such as “how do you die of a broken hip?” and “how long can you live with a broken bone?”
Alex Prentice QC, prosecuting, told the court the women were guilty of “unyielding, heartless cruelty”. The Fees had shown “callous indifference” to Liam’s suffering and had covered up his injuries, he said. The jury learned of the relentless level of painful and degrading abuse endured by the children as they listened to more than 20 hours of recorded interviews conducted separately with the surviving boys.
The Crown said it did not matter which woman struck the blow that killed Liam because they had a common criminal purpose and were joined in “a course of violent and cruel treatment towards the children”. The jury heard one boy explain that he was not allowed to get up to go to the toilet during the night. This meant that he would sometimes wet the bed, which would result in him being made to stand under a cold shower as punishment.
The court heard how there had been an escalation of violence towards Liam leading up to his death, which included the couple failing to get help for the toddler when they knew he had a broken leg and fractured arm. He later described how he had been tied to a locked homemade cage during the night, with his hands and feet bound with cable ties. He said his hands would swell up and that he was called “pudding hands” by Fee.
The injuries would have left the child in intense agony, but instead of taking him to hospital the Fees Googled terms such as “how do you die of a broken hip”, “how long can you live with a broken bone?” and “can wives be in prison together?” The second boy said he was once made to spend a whole day in a cold shower, drip drying in between. He said Fee had tied him naked to a chair and left him alone all night in a dark room which also contained snakes and rats in boxes. The boy, who said that he was scared of the dark, said the snakes included a boa constrictor which he was told “eats naughty little boys”.
Giving evidence, the women admitted serious failings over the lack of medical help sought for Liam and put it down to fears the child would be taken into care. The court also heard that concerns had been raised by nursery staff and neighbours about Liam’s treatment on three separate occasions over the year prior to his death. Defence QC Mark Stewart told the court there had been “ongoing social work awareness and contact with the family” from January 2013 through to the time that the toddler died, none of which resulted in action being taken against the couple.
But they denied murder and tried to shift the blame for the killing on to a boy of only primary school age, who they claimed had been acting in a sexualised way towards Liam. DI Hamilton concluded that the surviving two young boys were now “thriving”, attending school and “doing really well”.
Such was his fear of the women, the boy initially told police and social workers that he had “strangled” the toddler. But he later changed his story and it was clear that suffocation was not the cause of death. During a police interview, one of the boys was asked to explain why he liked superhero films so much. “The good guys always win,” he replied.
The evidence also pointed to a significant delay between the discovery by the women that Liam was dead and the emergency services being contacted by a seemingly hysterical Nyomi Fee shortly before 8pm that night.
Putting self-interest before the life of the boy, the “panicking” pair instead used the time to dismantle a makeshift cage they had built to imprison the youngster they accused of killing Liam.
With that, they showed a “wicked indifference” to whether the “vulnerable and defenceless” Liam lived or died, the court heard.