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The mum of tragic Liam Fee and her lesbian partner have been found guilty of murdering the toddler and falsely blaming his death on another child.

Rachel Fee, 31, and Nyomi Fee, 29, were convicted today of killing two-year-old Liam by inflicting severe blunt force trauma to his body at a house in Fife, Scotland.

The youngster, who had been subjected to a life of pain and neglect, suffered a ruptured heart after sustaining injuries similar to those seen in car crash victims.

The defendants were both also found guilty of wilfully assaulting, neglecting and abusing two young boys, including the one they blamed for Liam's killing, over a two-year period.

This abuse involved being imprisoned in a home-made cage, given cold showers, tied up in a dark room where snakes and rats were kept, and forced to eat dog excrement, a court heard.

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(Image: PA) (Image: Crown Office) (Image: Crown Office)

One of the boys also had his face rubbed in soiled underwear and was made to eat his own vomit.

Rachel Fee - Liam's mum - and her civil partner had been on trial for the past seven weeks over the murder at the house near Glenrothes on March 22, 2014.

They had denied all of the charges against them - and had even claimed that another boy, who cannot be identified because of his age, was responsible for Liam's fate.

Now, they are both facing life sentences for the murder of the youngster, who suffered a fractured upper arm bone and a broken thigh bone in the days before his death.

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Today, the couple were convicted of all eight charges they faced, with a majority verdict returned on the murder charge after around 10 hours of deliberations by the jury.

In addition to this charge, the pair were found guilty of assaulting Liam over a period of more than two years prior to his death by jurors at the High Court in Livingston.

They were also convicted of ill-treating and neglecting the toddler 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.

(Image: Crown Office) (Image: Crown Office)

(Image: Police Scotland/PA)

And the jury convicted Rachel and Nyomi Fee of four charges detailing a string of abuses against the two other boys, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

The youngsters were beaten, smacked and called humiliating names, deprived of food as a punishment, restrained with cable ties, and denied access to the toilet at night-time, the court heard.

They were then forced to take freezing showers when they wet the bed.

The two 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.

What did the abuse entail?

Two other young boys, who cannot be named, were subjected to painful and degrading treatment at the hands of Rachel and Nyomi Fee. They were:

Denied access to the toilet then forced to take freezing showers when they wet the bed

Beaten, smacked and called humiliating names

Deprived of food as a punishment

One was tied to a locked home-made cage at night-time

Another was tied naked to a chair and left alone in the dark in a room with snakes and rats in boxes. He was warned the creatures eat 'naughty little boys'.

Forced to eat dog excrement and their own vomit

The pair showed little emotion as the two verdicts were returned. Liam's father Joseph Johnson was later spotted in tears as he left the court.

At an earlier hearing, paediatric pathologist Dr Paul French had told how Liam died after suffering a ruptured heart caused by a severe blunt force injury to his torso.

Horrific as the fatal injury was, it was far from the only injury suffered by Liam during his short life.

The pathologist found fractures to the boy's upper arm and thigh, likely sustained in separate events in the hours and days before the child died.

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(Image: Crown Office) (Image: Crown Office) (Image: Crown Office)

Jurors listened as the expert detailed more than 30 external injuries he found on the toddler's body, most of them 'in keeping with blunt force trauma'.

These included an abrasion and laceration to the back of the head, bruises on his shin and thigh and external injuries to the genital area.

Not all the bruises could be explained away as 'the rough and tumble' of a toddler.

Liam also showed signs of neglect.

During the post-mortem, the expert noted the toddler as having a low body weight for his age; lower in fact than it had been a full eight months earlier.

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Prior to his death, it was clear that Liam had started to retreat from the outside world, another pointer to the harm he was suffering at the hands of his supposed carers.

Rachel and Nyomi Fee appeared to tell anyone who would listen that Liam had autism and even claimed health workers believed that to be the case.

Witnesses spoke of seeing the child in a buggy with a blanket over his head, apparently aimed at keeping him calm.

But the court heard a diagnosis of autism under the age of three would be highly unusual and could only happen in very severe cases.

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Other witnesses told the court they had no difficulties with Liam when they spent time with him.

Defenceless Liam almost certainly spent his last few days in agony.

Yesterday, the jury in the high-profile trial at the High Court were sent home without returning a verdict after a juror reported that they were not feeling well.

Judge Lord Burns ordered the eight women and six men to leave the court when the juror fell ill just four hours after deliberations resumed in the morning.

The jury had previously deliberated for about four hours on Friday.

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The men and women had been told by the judge to 'act impartially and dispassionately' as they considered a 'highly emotional' case resulting in the death of a small boy.

They were informed they could return verdicts of guilty, not guilty or not proven to the eight charges Rachel and Nyomi Fee faced - the latter two being verdicts of acquittal.

They were also told they were under no pressure and could take as long as they need to reach a decision.

Earlier in the case, Nyomi Fee had admitted to failing to take her civil partner's son to hospital after suspecting he had suffered a broken leg.

The defendant said she did not seek medical help for Liam's snapped thigh bone over fears her partner, also known as Rachel Trelfa, would leave her, the court heard.

Jurors were told how she had searched the Internet for “how do you die from a broken hip”, the Daily Record reports .

And when asked: “You thought he might die and you did nothing”, she replied: “Yes.”

Nyomi Fee's lawyer, Brian McConnachie QC told the jury: "By failing to get medical help, Rachel Fee committed an unforgivable crime and in due course she will be rightly and justly punished for that.

"That does not make her a murderer.

Jurors shed tears as Liam's body shown to court

Jurors were reduced to tears as a harrowing video showing Liam's body was displayed in court.

The silent recording, captured by detectives just hours after the toddler's murder, depicted family photos on the walls and toys scattered around the house in Fife.

But it also showed Liam lying dead on his bedroom floor, dressed in cartoon character pyjamas with a duvet covering him up to his neck. The toddler looked like he was sleeping.

In highly unusual court scenes, jury members wept as they watched the camera move slowly over his body.

Liam's mum, Rachel Fee, and her partner also covered their faces and shed tears in the dock.

"Tragedy is an overused word in this court but the death of Liam Fee is a real, genuine tragedy."

He added: "Do not compound that tragedy by convicting Rachel Fee of the murder of her son when there's not a shred of evidence to support that contention.

"The Crown case is one of illusion, of smoke and mirrors."

Jurors were shown an image of Liam’s broken thigh bone during a cross-examination by prosecutor Alex Prentice QC.

Nyomi Fee – who had earlier denied inflicting fatal injuries – accepted that the injury had happened while he was in her care some time before his death on March 22.

Highlighting the photo, Mr Prentice said: “He was in excruciating pain, do you agree?

Nyomi Fee replied: “He was crying.”

Describing the boy as being in 'intense agony', the prosecutor said: “He desperately needed help.”

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She replied: “I didn’t know that at the time.”

The court heard that between March 17 and March 20, Nyomi Fee had searched the web for the symptoms of broken legs, broken hips and blood clots using her smartphone.

She had also searched if the ailments could cause death, it was said. She 'medicated' Liam for the pain using Calpol and Ibuprofen, the jury was told.

Nyomi Fee said that she and her partner had a 'difference of opinion' over whether to take the little boy to hospital as he had another injury to his body.

This, she said, was linked to alleged abusive behaviour by another child in their care.

Nyomi Fee told the court that Liam's mum had feared she could lose her son over the incident due to previous social work involvement.

She had threatened to end the relationship if Nyomi Fee called on outside help, the court heard.

“She threatened to leave me and stop me seeing [Liam],” Nyomi Fee explained.

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Mr Prentice asked: “You would rather that he writhed in pain for days than you face a question being asked.”

“I wouldn’t rather that,” she said.

“But that’s what you did,” Mr Prentice said, which Nyomi Fee accepted.

Mr Prentice later said that it was 'a wicked and atrocious attitude to have towards a young boy'.

Nyomi Fee said: “I know it was wrong.”

During further evidence, the prosecutor added: “I take it that you loved him, you looked after him... he looked to you to create a safe environment for him.

“And you thought he might die and you did nothing.”

“Yes,” replied Nyomi Fee.

Mr Prentice said: “That sums this case up, doesn’t it? You didn’t care whether he lived or died, did you?”

Nyomi Fee replied: “Yes, I did.”

During her initial examination by her defence QC Mark Stewart, she also accepted that she may have neglected Liam by failing to get him medical treatment.

“Do you accept that in failing to obtain that treatment you would be guilty of neglect or ill treatment?” Mr Stewart asked.

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“Yes, I do,” Nyomi Fee replied, later telling the court: “I hate myself for that.”

But she denied harming the youngster.

The lawyer put it to her: “Did you have any part in inflicting the fatal injuries upon Liam or any other injuries upon Liam?”

“No, never,” the accused replied.

Giving evidence, Nyomi Fee described discovering Liam’s body in his buggy.

She told court that she found him 'lifeless' and 'very white' an hour after she had left him alone in his room.

(Image: Daily Record)

Nyomi Fee said she 'screamed' at Rachel Fee as she pulled him from the buggy and called 999 within 'two to three minutes tops'.

The court heard she gave him chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth on the orders of an emergency operator.

“There was nothing,” Nyomi Fee said.

Mr Stewart asked: “When you found him in his buggy, what was your immediate emotional response?

“I was absolutely devastated,” she replied.

When asked what thoughts were going through her head as she administered CPR, she said: “That it wasn’t working. That he wasn’t coming back.

“That I had lost him.”

Mr Stewart asked: “How did that make you feel?”

She replied: “Gutted... I was in complete shock.

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She added later: “It kills us.”

Evidence 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, the Record reports.

Putting self-interest ahead of the life of the little boy, she and her partner 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.

Speaking to the Mirror Online after today's verdicts, an NSPCC spokesman said: “Liam and other children were subjected to horrific and long-term abuse by a couple who, instead of loving their family, brutally murdered a child in their care.

"Everyone who has followed this case will have been deeply affected by the accounts of neglect, cruelty and violence inflicted on Liam during his short and tragic life.

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"The details of how this couple inflicted such abhorrent cruelty have rightly shocked the public, yet sadly cases of abuse and neglect are taking place every day in homes across the country.

"We must all be alert to the signs that a child may need help and be ready to take action to protect them.”

The charity said members of the public with any concerns about child protection can contact the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000.

Social Work Scotland president Elaine Torrance also spoke out this afternoon, describing Liam's death as an 'absolute tragedy' that followed 'deeply shocking abuse'.

Ms Torrance said: "What makes it worse is that the abuse was carried out by the very people Liam should have been able to trust the most: his mum and his step-mum.

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"Cases like these are exceptional and children dying at the hands of their parents remains a rare occurrence in Scotland.

"Parents are the primary protectors of their children and when that relationship fails and where people go out of their way to keep agencies at arm's length, children can be at terrible risk."

Fife Council will continue with a significant case review to discover if more could have been done to help Liam, she added.

Police praise boys' bravery

This afternoon, Detective Inspector Rory Hamilton praised the bravery of the two other boys, whose evidence meant Rachel and Nyomi Fee were convicted of Liam's murder.

Mr Hamilton, of Police Scotland's major investigation team, 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.

"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.

"This was a complex, challenging and sensitive investigation which involved interviewing two young children to establish the level of abuse and neglect both they and Liam Fee had been subjected to.

"It was because of their courage that detectives were able to identify Rachel and Nyomi Fee as being responsible for a wide range of serious offences against three children."

Assistant Chief Constable Malcolm Graham, lead officer for major crime and public protection, added: "Liam's murder has had a profound effect on everyone involved in the investigation and our thoughts are with his wider family.

"The death of a child is always traumatic but the murder of a child has a terrible and lasting impact on the family, on the wider community and on the carers and professionals involved."