Liam Fee: Mother and partner found guilty of murdering two-year-old boy after attempting to blame abused child

Rachel and Nyomi Fee have been found guilty at the High Court in Livingston

Liam Fee was just two-years-old when he died at his home in Glenrothes in March 2014 (PA)

A mother and her partner have been found guilty of murdering her two-year-old son and attempting to blame it on another child.

Rachel and Nyomi Fee were found guilty of assaulting and killing their son Liam at his home near Glenrothes in March 2014.

They were also convicted of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by attempting to frame another young boy who was one of two other children present in the house when Liam died.

The little boy was found dead at his home near Glenrothes on 22 March 2014 with heart injuries similar to those found on road crash victims after a severe blunt force trauma to his chest and abdomen.

Pathologists found more than 30 external injuries on the toddler's body and fractures to his upper arm and thigh.

The Fees tried to shift the blame for the death on to a boy of primary school age, who they claimed had been acting in a sexualised way towards Liam.

The child initially appeared to admit responsibility, claiming he had “strangled” Liam by putting his hands over his mouth, but in a series of five video interviews carried out separately over several weeks with both children, the truth began to emerge.

Far from being strangled, Liam had died from a single blow to the abdomen which had ruptured his heart, pathologists said.

The jury heard there was an escalation of violence towards the toddler leading up to his death, which included the couple failing to get help for him when they knew he had a broken leg and fractured arm.

Rachel and Nyomi Fee (l-r) have both been found guilty of murdering two-year-old Liam (PA)

Prosecutor Alex Prentice QC told the court the women were guilty of “unyielding, heartless cruelty” and had shown “callous indifference” to the boy’s suffering.

Instead of taking him to hospital, they searched questions 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?” on Google.

Rachel and Nyomi Fee were convicted following a seven-week trial heard at the High Court in Livingston.

They were also found guilty of abusing two other children, including the child they attempted to frame, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The court heard the two children, both of primary school age, were subjected to physical and psychological abuse over several years.

The boy wrongly blamed for Liam’s death told interviewers Nyomi Fee would show she was angry by calling him “dirty boy” and that he had been tied to a locked home-made cage during the night, with his hands and feet would be bound with cable ties to the makeshift construction using a fireguard and bars.

The child also described how he would sometimes be naked in the cage and had his hands bound behind his back, while at other times he would be tied to a cot with a dressing-gown cord and coat belts.

The trial heard how the boy tried to flee on three separate occasions from the Fees' house, and had even made a rope out of bandages to aid his escape.

“I tried to run away because of bad treatment,” the boy said.

During interviews, the second boy said he was banned from going to the toilet in the night but given cold showers “for 15 or 20 minutes” if he wet the bed.

He told police Fee tied him naked to a chair and left him alone in a room all night in the dark, with snakes and rats in boxes.

The boy, who said he is scared of the dark, said the snakes included a boa constrictor which he was told “eats naughty little boys”.

He said he “felt unsafe” with both women and was “scared” of being punished when he stayed with them.

Liam's father, Joseph Johnson, appears in court to hear the verdict (PA)

Detective Inspector Rory Hamilton, the senior investigating officer, praised the courage of the two children whose evidence was key to securing the conviction of the pair.

He said the deterioration in Liam's care began when his mother Rachel, 31, left his father to move to Scotland to be with Nyomi, 28, in August 2011.

“Nyomi would certainly appear to be quite a domineering part of the relationship, certainly from what the investigation uncovered,” Det Insp Hamilton added.

Jurors were moved to tears after a video showing Liam's body was shown to the court. After 12 minutes, one juror raised their hand to ask for a break in proceedings to give people time to compose themselves.

The silent recording, taken hours after the toddler died, was taken by detectives. Going through every room in the house, numerous family photos were spotted on the walls as well as toys dotted around the rooms.

Liam died after a single blow to the abdomen ruptured his heart (PA/Police Scotland)

The final images of the video showed Liam lying dead on his bedroom floor, dressed in cartoon character pyjamas with a duvet covering him up to his neck, appearing as if he were sleeping.

Fife Child Protection Committee has said it would carry out a significant case review, after it was found that social services had been alerted to Fees' abuse but failed to take any action.

Liam's nursery had alerted social services after they noticed Liam had become withdrawn – in contrast to the happy little boy he had been when he first arrived.

Staff also found he had a lot of injuries and was losing weight and his childminder also raised concerns.

Despite this, a senior Fife social worker admitted in council his case had been dropped as he ”fell off their radar“ when a member of staff went on sick leave and no-one took over the case.

Vice-chairman of the Fife Child Protection Committee, Douglas Dunlop, described the death as a ”tragedy“ and said the body would reflect on the case ”to see whether there is any scope for improvement“.

The couple, originally of Ryton, Tyne and Wear, will be sentenced on July 6 at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Additional reporting by PA