A friend of the two women accused of murdering toddler Liam Fee has told a court they “knew they were in trouble” after the child’s death, and he warned them: “You’ll be going to jail for neglect.”
John Taylor, 27, said Rachel Trelfa asked him: “Do you think we’ll get a cell together?”
Mr Taylor told the court he had a “weird” meeting with the pair after Liam died, which made him feel uncomfortable and want to get drunk.
And during one encounter, they used “horrible names” to refer to a young boy they claimed had strangled Liam, the court heard.
Liam’s mother Trelfa, 31, and her civil partner Nyomi Fee, 28, are on trial for a fifth week at the High Court in Livingston, where they deny murdering two-year-old Liam 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 witness told the court that he and his partner have known the couple for about four years and would see them on a regular basis.
He described how he met up with the women in a Dunfermline pub on the Tuesday after Saturday March 22, 2014 – the day on which Liam died at a house in Fife – and then met them again some days later.
Asked about the women’s attitude on the second meeting, he said: “Nyomi didn’t really care. I felt sorry for Rachel to be honest. I think at one point I said: ‘You’ll be going to jail for neglect’.”
He went on: “Rachel said, ‘Do you think we’ll get a cell together?”
Mr Taylor said he was distraught and upset during the meeting, which he described as “strange”.
He told the court: “They just knew there was something wrong. They knew they were in trouble. They didn’t seem that bothered. It was very weird, uncomfortable.”
Mr Taylor said he felt “gobsmacked” during the meeting.
“I was like, I can’t believe what I’m hearing, I just need to get drunk… Me and Rachel got really upset, I was comforting Rachel quite a lot,” he said.
Earlier he told how, during the meeting in the pub, Trelfa was “distraught” and some “crazy” things were said.
He said the women claimed a young boy had “strangled” Liam or put his hand over the child’s mouth.
“There wasn’t really much talk about Liam. It was more they were angry with the boy, to be honest,” he said.
Mr Taylor later told the court the women had used “horrible names” to refer to the young boy and said he was “like an animal”.
Names such as “little bastard”, “little monster” and “rapist” were used to refer to the boy, the witness said.
During cross questioning by defence QC Mark Stewart, it emerged that the witness is in jail for police assault, his second time in custody.
“I’ve got quite a record, actually,” Mr Taylor told jurors.
