Nyomi forced boy's hand into Liam's mouth to 'show him what he'd done'

A lesbian accused of murdering two-year-old Liam Fee with her civil partner forced another young boy to put his hand into the toddler's mouth after he had died and said: 'You've killed him.'

The boy, who cannot be named, told police he slept naked inside a cage made of a fireguard and bars with his hands bound with cable ties, a court heard.

He also said how his hands would swell up and was called 'pudding hands' by one of the accused, jurors were told.

Dead in 2014: Liam Fee allegedly suffered blunt force trauma to his head and body near Glenrothes in Fife

The child described how he would sometimes be naked in the cage, had his hands tied behind his back on occasion and would have objects placed on him to make sure he did not move.

Liam's mother Rachel Fee, 31, and her civil partner Nyomi Fee, 28, are on trial for a second week at the High Court in Livingston, Scotland, where they deny murdering two-year-old Liam Fee and falsely blaming his death on another young boy.

They also plead not guilty to a catalogue of allegations of wilfully ill-treating and neglecting two young boys over a period of more than two years.

The jury has been shown various pre-recorded interviews with the boy the women blame for the death which were held in the weeks after Liam died at a house in Fife on Saturday March 22 2014.

On day eight of the trial, the jury heard the child, who was seven at the time, tell a police officer and social worker about a 'cage' in the living room.

He described being locked in the makeshift construction, which was tied together with cable ties. He said he would be 'sitting up, sometimes lying down, tied there' and showed his arms being stretched out and up.

'It was made of a fireguard and there was some bars,' he said, adding the bars came from the under the mattress on a bed.

The child said it happened 'after Christmas' and described how the cage would stay in the living room but would get moved into another room when a nurse came round to look at his sore feet.

Trial: Nyomi Fee, 28, and her civil partner Rachel Fee, 31 - who can be identified by name but not pictured for legal reasons - are also facing a catalogue of assault, cruelty and neglect charges involving three children

'Why did you have to go in there (the cage)?' he was asked.

'I don't know,' the child replied.

'What did you get tied with?' the interviewers asked.

'Cable ties,' he replied, adding that both his arms would be bound, and feet.

'How long would you be tied to that cage for?' he was asked.

'All night,' the boy said, later adding that it happened once in the daytime.

He said Nyomi would do it to him but that Rachel would also do it when Nyomi was away.

The child also described how the accused would throw jackets over the cage when they were watching DVDs so that he could not see.

'Did you have any clothes on?' he was asked.

'No clothes on,' the boy replied. He agreed that he had slept in the cage in the living room.

Jurors heard him describe how his tied hands would become red and swollen, and that Nyomi had called him 'pudding hands'.

He described how, on other occasions, he would be tied to a cot with a dressing-gown cord and coat belts.

The two women are also charged with attempting to defeat the ends of justice in the wake of Liam's death

Talking about the night Liam died, the boy said that Nyomi 'told me Liam's dead'.

He went on: 'She said "do you want to see want you've done to Liam?"

The interviewer asked: 'Who said that to you?'

The boy replied: 'Ny (Nyomi) but I didn't do anything.'

He said he did not know what she had meant by that.

The child described how he was told to get dressed and then stood in a corridor.

He said he could see that Liam was 'on the floor' in his bedroom and his colour had changed to light grey.

Referring to Nyomi, the boy went on: 'She wiped my hand and got me into Liam's room and then she got my hand and put it in his mouth.'

Liam was in his pyjamas and his mouth was open at the time, he said.

The boy agreed that Nyomi kept pushing his hand in but said she did not say anything to him as it happened.

The child later described how Nyomi told him: 'You've killed Liam.'

Both women are charged with assaulting Liam Fee by repeatedly inflicting blunt force trauma to his head and body between January 2012 and March 2014.

They are accused of murdering him by inflicting similar blunt force injuries in March 2014, injuring him so severely that he died.

They are also charged with wilfully ill-treating, neglecting and abandoning Liam in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or injury to health between January and March 2014, leaving him in a darkened room without physical or mental stimulation, giving him Calpol to make him sleep and failing to provide and seek appropriate, timely and adequate medical aid for him when he was injured.

They are also charged with attempting to defeat the ends of justice following Liam's death by delaying contacting the emergency services and falsely claiming during a 999 call - and later to police, friends and family - that one of the seven-year-olds was responsible for his death.

Prosecutors also allege that prior to the arrival of police and paramedics on March 22, 2014, the couple grabbed the hand of the seven year-old they blamed and forced it into the dead toddler's mouth.

The cruelty and neglect charges include allegations that they deprived all three boys of food, refused to let them go to the toilet at night and forced them to stand naked and shivering under a cold shower if they wet the bed.