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| Liam Fee: Mother and partner given life sentences for murder of toddler | Liam Fee: Mother and partner given life sentences for murder of toddler |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A mother and her partner have been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her two-year-old son. | A mother and her partner have been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her two-year-old son. |
| Rachel Fee and her civil partner Nyomi were convicted of assaulting and killing her son Liam at their Fife home in March 2014. | Rachel Fee and her civil partner Nyomi were convicted of assaulting and killing her son Liam at their Fife home in March 2014. |
| Rachel, 31, will serve a minimum of 23 and a half years behind bars and Nyomi, 28, will serve 24 years. | |
| The pair were impassed after the jury found by majority verdict that they had subjected him to an escalating level of cruelty during his time in their care after a seven week trial at the High Court in Livingston. | |
| They were also found guilty of a catalogue of horrific cruelty against two other children who cannot be named for legal reasons. | |
| Liam died due a blow to his abdomen which was so severe it ruptured his heart at his home near Glenrothes. A coroner later concluded his injuries were similar to that of a car crash victim. | |
| In the days before his death he suffered a broken leg and arm and had suffered more than 30 external injuries | |
| The pair had blamed another child for the little boy's death – saying he had "strangled" Liam by putting his hands over his mouth – but after several interviews with specially-trained officers and a social worker the child started to explain what really happened. | |
| Prosecuting Alex Prentice QC told the court the couple were guilty of "unyielding, heartless cruelty" and had shown | |
| The court heard how the couple, originally of Ryton, Tyne and Wear, had the little boy to months of neglect and abuse - inlcluding not getting him medical help when they knew his leg was broken. | |
| Instead of taking him to hospital they did a Google search for "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 boy they falsely accused of killin Liam also told interviewers that Nyomi would call him "dirty boy" and tie him to a locked home-made cage during the night, with his hand and feet bound with cable ties. | |
| He said he would sometimes be naked in the cage with his hands behind his back. | |
| The second child said he had been banned from going to the toilet at night but was given cold showers "for 15 or 20 minutes" when he wept the bed. | |
| He told police the women had tied him naked to a chair and left him alone in a darkened room all night with snakes and rats in boxes. | |
| The boy, who is afraid of the dark, said they told him the box of snakes included a boa constrictor which "eats naughty little boys". | |
| More follows... | More follows... |