Liam Fee

Case background and investigation

Liam Fee was two and a half years old when he died at his home near Glenrothes in Fife, Scotland, on March 22, 2014. According to BBC News, he had suffered a ruptured heart caused by severe blunt force trauma. The court heard that the damage resembled injuries seen in road crash victims, that he had more than 30 external injuries, and that he had an untreated broken leg and fractured arm in the days before he died.

His mother, Rachel Fee, who is also known as Rachel Trelfa, and her civil partner, Nyomi Fee, were charged with his murder. Both women were originally from Ryton in Tyne and Wear, the BBC reported. They denied the charges and claimed that another young boy was responsible for Liam's death.

The trial ran for seven weeks at the High Court in Livingston before the judge, Lord Burns. The jury retired on May 27, 2016, and by May 31 had found both women guilty, by majority, of assault and murder. According to the BBC, they were also convicted of a series of offences of cruelty against two other boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by trying to blame one of those boys for the death.

On July 6, 2016, at the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Burns sentenced both women to life imprisonment. Rachel Fee was ordered to serve a minimum of 23 and a half years and Nyomi Fee a minimum of 24 years. The judge said the post-mortem findings showed Liam had been subjected to a prolonged course of violent behaviour. Counsel for Nyomi Fee said she accepted responsibility for neglecting Liam but maintained she had not murdered him.

Rachel Fee appealed against her conviction, arguing that the jury should have been given the option of a culpable homicide verdict in her case. The Court of Criminal Appeal refused the appeal in a written opinion delivered by Lord Turnbull in March 2017; Scottish Legal News dates the decision to March 10.

The trial heard that Liam's childminder, his nursery and a member of the public had each raised concerns with social services in 2013, and a senior social worker acknowledged in evidence that his case had at one stage dropped out of view. A significant case review commissioned by the Fife Child Protection Committee was published on June 20, 2017, and the Scottish Government said it would consider the national implications. A social worker involved in Liam's case was later removed from the register by the Scottish Social Services Council, which also pointed to systemic failings at the council, the BBC reported.