A young boy has been wrongly blamed for the death of a toddler, after he told a court he was another room when it happened, a court has heard.
Two-year-old Liam Fee (seen above) died at a house in Fife, Scotland in March 2014.
His parents, Rachel, 31, and partner Nyomi, 27, both deny they were involved in Liam’s death and say that the crime was committed by the other child (who cannot be named).
Both women are on trial at the High Court in Livingston. The court heard the young boy saying he heard Rachel crying and telling her partner Nyomi her son Liam was no longer alive.
When the boy was asked if anyone had blamed him for what happened to Liam, he replied that “Auntie Ny” had said “horrible things” to him.
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“[It was] because I messed my Lego on the floor and he tripped over it. I got the blame for that that night, the night the police came.”
Evidence came to light in court that the deceased two-year-old’s thigh bone may have been broken when he tripped over a toy and landed heavily on Lego building blocks less than a week before his death.
The boy and Liam were living in the same house when the toddler suffered a catalogue of injuries, including a broken arm and leg. The jury were told that he also suffered a blunt force trauma impact to the abdomen which ruptured his heart.
The child said he “saw it” happen, but would not describe it.
The young boy described how he was forced to take cold showers as punishment that would leave him shaking because he wasn’t allowed to go to the bathroom during the night and therefore wet the bed. He was made to drip dry on to a towel in a corridor and was called a ‘dirty boy’.
He claims Nyomi smacked him, and also stamped on his feet and made them bleed. One of the boys was shut in a dark room full of snakes and another boy had a cage of live rats put on his head.
The young child in court said he cried when Nyomi blamed him for the Liam’s death.
Last week, however, the boy told police and a social worker that he “strangled” Liam, but that he was still sitting up and watching TV afterwards. He told the interviewers he used one hand. But in a later video, he said he “made it up”.
Rachel and Nyomi are accused of multiple charges, including child cruelty and neglect against Liam, the boy and another boy in their care.
The trial, which has been going for a week already, will continue.
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