Jurors in the trial of a mother accused of murdering her two-year-old son with her civil partner will continue deliberations on Monday.
The jury in the Liam Fee murder trial went out on Friday morning but failed to reach a verdict after five hours.
Around 3.40pm they were dismissed for the weekend and told to return to Livingston High Court on Monday, when the trial will enter its eighth week.
They were told they could convict Rachel Trelfa or Fee and partner Nyomi Fee of either murder or the lesser charge of culpable homicide if they believe they are responsible for toddler Liam’s death.
Liam’s mother Trelfa, 31, and her civil partner Fee, 29, are accused of fatally assaulting the tot at a house in Thornton, in Fife, and inflicting a catalogue of abuse against him and two other children.
Judge Lord Burns told jurors: “There are three verdicts open to you in respect of each charge, guilty, not guilty and not proven.
“The latter two are both verdicts of acquittal and both mean in effect the accused cannot be tried again on a particular charge.
“Your verdicts can be unanimous or by majority and if the verdict is guilty there must be at least eight of you, an absolute majority, in favour of that guilty verdict.
On the murder charge, he said: “There are different verdicts open to you in respect of each accused.
“They could be found guilty of murder or of culpable homicide or acquitted.
“But in order to reach the verdict of guilty on either of those charges, for murder or culpable homicide, you would need at least eight of you in favour.”
On Thursday jurors were told to put any sympathy or prejudice aside as they considered a verdict in the “highly emotional” case.
Liam died on March 22, 2014, but the accused say another boy, who cannot be identified, was responsible for his injuries.
The couple are accused of repeatedly inflicting “blunt force trauma” to Liam’s head and body and of the ill treatment and neglect of two other boys.
The pair have admitted during evidence that they failed to seek medical help for Liam for a suspected broken leg in the days before his death.
Trelfa said she feared social workers would be alerted and remove her child from her care.
The women are accused of eight charges in total, including the ill treatment and neglect of the children, assault, and murder.
They are also accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by falsely incriminating another boy for Liam’s death.
