A woman accused of murdering toddler Liam Fee has told a court she played no part in inflicting his fatal injuries and was “in complete shock” when she realised he had died.
Nyomi Fee, 28, told jurors she tried to resuscitate the two-year-old but was “gutted” when it became clear that “he wasn’t coming back”.
Fee denied concocting a story about what happened that night with another child and insisted she had dialled 999 for an ambulance within two or three minutes of discovering Liam.
But Fee did admit her failure to seek medical help for Liam for an earlier injury to his leg amounted to neglect and ill-treatment, telling jurors: “I hate myself for that.”
Liam died at a house near Glenrothes in Fife on March 22, 2014.
Fee is on trial for a sixth week at the High Court in Livingston alongside her civil partner Rachel Fee, or Trelfa, 31 – Liam’s mother – where they deny murdering the toddler and falsely blaming his death on another boy. They are accused of repeatedly inflicting “blunt force trauma” to Liam’s head and body.
Fee, the first witness to give evidence for the defence, was in the witness box for a second day.
Questioned by her defence QC Mark Stewart, Fee told how she went into Liam’s room on the Saturday in question and found his buggy in a different place, and he was “very white”.
She said: “I picked him up by his arms and tried to make him wake up, and I screamed on Rachel.”
She said she put Liam on the floor and was “constantly trying to get him to wake up”.
Fee said she phoned 999 within “two to three minutes tops” and suspected that Liam was dead.
“He was really white, he was lifeless, there was nothing,” she told the court on the 26th day of the trial.
Mr Stewart asked whether, in the time she was in the room with Liam, she had ever “caused him any injury or ill health by any act or deed”.
“No, none whatsoever,” Fee replied, adding she heard a child in the house say they had strangled Liam.
“Did you have any opportunity to concoct a story?” asked the QC. “No,” replied the accused.
Mr Stewart asked about her emotions at the point when she found Liam.
“I was absolutely devastated,” Fee told jurors.
On her efforts to resuscitate the child, she added: “It wasn’t working. He wasn’t coming back, I’d lost him.”
She said she felt “gutted” and “was in complete shock,” before adding: “It kills us.”
The lawyer put it to her: “Did you have any part in inflicting the fatal injuries upon Liam or any other injuries upon Liam?”
“No, never,” the accused replied.
She said she “never” had any reason to harm the boy and insisted she had never harmed him on any occasion.
Fee also spoke of incidents she said occurred on March 16 that year, in which she found another boy in the house “stamping” on Liam’s leg.
The next day, she said she noticed a “massive” difference in Liam and he could not bear weight on his leg, prompting her to “Google symptoms”.
Fee said she accepted she did not get Liam appropriate medical treatment for that injury, which she thought could have been a broken leg.
“Do you accept that in failing to obtain that treatment you would be guilty of neglect or ill treatment?” Mr Stewart asked.
“Yes, I do,” Fee replied, later telling the court: “I hate myself for that.”
