A mother and her partner have denied murdering her two-year-old son in their Fife home and trying to blame another child for his death.
Rachael Trelfa or Fee, 31, and Nyomi Fee, 28, pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder alleging they assaulted the tot at their former home in Donald Crescent, Thornton, on various occasions over eight days, repeatedly inflicting blunt force trauma to his head and body by means unknown, injuring him so severely that he died on March 22, last year.
They also denied attempting to defeat justice and trying to falsely incriminate another child by moving a mattress from the living room to a bedroom, dismantling a cage, hiding it under a mattress, and putting cable ties in a shed.
The charge also states they falsely made a 999 call after discovering Liam’s body and told ambulance personnel, police, friends and family at Kirkcaldy police station and elsewhere between March 22 and April 30, last year, that the other child was responsible for his death at their former home.
The pair pleaded not guilty to wilfully ill-treating, abandoning and exposing Liam in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health at their former home, Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital, the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh and elsewhere between January 12 and March 22, last year.
They also denied assaulting Liam at home, inflicting blunt force trauma to his head and body by means unknown on various occasions between January 12, 2012 and March 14, 2014.
The couple further pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting and wilfully ill-treating, neglecting, abandoning and exposing two other children a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health.
The pair, of Hardman Gardens, Ryton, Tyne and Wear, said nothing during their appearance in the High Court in Glasgow this morning.
Lady Rae set a date for their trial in Livingston High Court in April, which is expected to last eight weeks.For more, see Saturday’s Courier