REX Rachel and Nyomi Fee were found guilty of murdering two-year-old Liam

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In the dock it was the same story, no sign of remorse until jurors wept over the sickening injuries the couple had inflicted on three tiny children – then they covered their faces. But was it in grief or shame? Today lesbian partners Rachel and Nyomi Fee are under lock and key in a remand prison, guarded night and day from other women who would love to inflict on them the beatings and torture they handed out to the children – one of whom, Rachel’s two-year-old son Liam, died from his terrible injuries. The other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were also the victims of two years of sustained and depraved attacks. Now they are in foster care and are said to be doing well.

But poor little Liam was not so lucky – yet another tragic victim let down by the system which failed to protect him from the brutally cruel women with whom he lived. Put starkly, all three children were an inconvenience, a hindrance that the couple wished to ignore. They got in the way of their shabby lifestyle, which could have come straight from Jeremy Kyle’s television show. Liam’s 31-year-old mother would cover the toddler’s face with a blanket and dump him in his bedroom with the radio on for hours because her drinking, takeaways and TV took priority. Instead of caring for the child she had given birth to, she preferred to lavish love and attention on her horse, which was kept at a stable near their home.

PA The couple want to be allowed to stay together in jail

Usually she would visit the animal twice a day, including for three hours on the very day Liam died from a ruptured heart caused by a massive blow to the chest. Both she and her 28-year-old civil partner were unemployed but somehow money for childminding and a private nursery could always be found. So could cash for drink and junk food. They even lived in a Travelodge for a time. But very little was spent on any of the children – only enough for them to survive. Days before Liam was found dead with his arm and leg broken, the couple used Google to look up “morphine for children” and “Will a hip fracture heal on its own?” They also searched this: “Can wives be in prison together?”

It was the only near-admission of guilt they made despite hours of police questioning because when they stood trial at Livingston High Court in Scotland they pleaded not guilty to a string of charges including murder, assault and neglect. This weekend they are reportedly being held on the same remand wing at Cornton Vale prison in ­Stirling as they await sentencing on July 6. A source at the prison said the decision to put them both there had “sickened both prisoners and guards” and they had already suffered verbal abuse and were potentially in “a dangerous place”. The source added: “They are still at each other’s side. They may feel safer being together but the prisoners hate this pair.” The details of the cruelty and violence the couple inflicted upset even hardened reporters and lawyers at the couple’s trial. The Daily Express will not publish everything that was heard in court because it is too upsetting but some facts have to be made public so the full horror of what the couple did can be fully understood.

PA Liam was found dead with his arm and leg broken

Rachel Trelfa, as she then was, gave birth to Liam in August 2011 on Tyneside, where she lived with his father Joseph Johnson. Four months later when her lesbian affair with Nyomi Fee was discovered she left him to live with her in Gateshead. At first they stayed in hotels around Newcastle before moving to Fife. They became civil partners in June 2012 and next month Liam began going to a childminder. Six months later the childminder reported to the Scottish Childminding Association and the Care Inspectorate that Liam had bruises. A police officer and a social worker visited his home but left when his mother told them he had only bumped his head. Nine months later Liam started nursery and soon the staff alerted social services about bruises and scratches on his body. Within a few weeks the social worker assigned to Liam’s case went off sick – and no one took over. Liam dropped “off the radar”, a council manager admitted in court.

PA The court was told that Rachel Fee wanted to deprive Joseph Johnson of custody

What was happening to Liam and the other children was horrific. One boy was imprisoned in a cage made from a fireguard and cable ties were used to bind his hands behind his back. Another boy was tied naked to a chair in a dark room with nine snakes and several rats in a cage on his head. The wicked couple told him a boa constrictor “ate naughty little boys”. When the couple knew Liam had a broken leg and arm as a result of more beatings they refused to get medical help. The court was told the injuries, days before his death, would have left him in agony. But instead of taking him to hospital the Fees went online to search Google for: “How long can you live with a broken bone?” After Liam died Nyomi pushed another boy’s fist into Liam’s mouth to leave his DNA there – then lied to the police that the boy, who was of primary school age, had inflicted the fatal injuries.

UNINAS One of the boys was imprisoned in a cage made from a fireguard

Jurors were reduced to tears by a video showing Liam’s body. The recording, made by police hours after his murder, revealed family photos on the walls and toys scattered around the house in Fife. But the boy’s crumpled body was lying on his bedroom floor, dressed in cartoon-character pyjamas with a duvet covering him up to his neck. He looked for all the world as if he was sleeping. While giving evidence Liam’s mother was asked by the prosecuting QC how she squared her failure to seek medical help for him with the responsibilities of being a mother. “I completely failed him,” she replied. So did the social services and the police, an all too common story when youngsters die at the hands of their family.

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