Two women are to stand trial later this week charged with murdering a two-year-old boy in Fife and trying to blame the killing on a boy of seven.
Rachel Fee, 31, also known as Rachel Trelfa and her civil partner Nyomi Fee, 28, deny murder and attempting to defeat the ends of justice as well as a catalogue of child abuse and neglect charges.
Their jury trial was due to start at the High Court in Livingston on Monday but was called and adjourned until Wednesday because another murder trial has over-run its allotted time.
Judge Lady Rae told the pair that it was likely that proceedings against them would not now begin until Thursday 7 April.
The couple, who have been relocated to a secret address in the Lothian and Borders Sheriffdom since proceedings began, left court holding hands and got into a waiting private hire taxi.
The women both deny murdering Liam Johnson, also known as Liam Fee, by repeatedly inflicting blunt force trauma to his head and body in Thornton on various occasions between 15 and 22 March, 2014.
They also plead not guilty to attempting to defeat the ends of justice by falsely telling a 999 operator, ambulance personnel, police and friends and family members that a seven-year-old boy was responsible for the tot’s death.
It is also alleged that on various occasions between January 2012 and March 2014 they failed to provide Liam with adequate exercise or physical and mental stimulation by leaving him in his pushchair for prolonged periods and that by putting a blanket over his face, taping socks to his hands and leaving him in a darkened room.
It is also claimed they failed to provide him with enough food and gave him medicine intended for another child and Calpol in order to keep him quiet and make him sleep.
The two women also deny harming two young boys from January 2012 to March 2014.
It is alleged that the pair compelled one of the boys to stand naked under a cold shower as a punishment for wetting the bed, then pushed him and told him to stand still if his body shook.
The Crown also claim that they locked him in a cage they built using a metal fire guard and wood for prolonged periods during the day and night.
It is alleged that the couple bound the child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to the cage with cable ties, string, the cord from a dressing gown, placed items on him and struck him if the objects fell off, poured water over him and pretended he had urinated and on occasions forced him to sit with his feet raised from the ground and refused to let him put them down.
The Crown also claims that the Fees forced the young boy to eat his own excrement, threatened to cut off his penis with a saw, put soap in his mouth, forced him to sleep in a closed drawer and failed to provide him with adequate food.
The pair are also accused of binding his arms and legs to a cot and on one occasion putting a cage filled with rats on his head. It is also alleged that they forced the boy’s hand into the mouth of Liam, who was dead, on 22 March last year, prior to the arrival of the police and paramedics.
The Fees are also accused of forcing the boy to lie in a cold bath and forcing his head underwater. The Crown claims that the pair told the second young boy that his father was dead and that they had killed him.
They are also accused of rubbing his face in underwear smeared with urine and faeces and threatening to cut off his penis and making him take cold showers for prolonged periods.
The Fees are also charged with tying the boy naked to a chair in their bedroom where they kept rats, snakes and a boa constrictor and telling him that the boa constrictor ate naughty boys and forcing him to sleep there on his own in the dark overnight.
The Crown also claims that the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was compelled to stand facing a wall for prolonged periods without moving and was slapped if he did move.
The trial, before presiding judge Lord Burns, is expected to last for six to eight weeks.