Boy 'in other room' when toddler Liam Fee died

Liam Fee was found dead at a house near Glenrothes in Fife on 22 March 2014

A boy blamed for a toddler's death said he was in another room when he heard the women accused of killing him shout "Liam's dead!", a court has heard.

The youngster told interviewers he heard Liam Fee's mother Rachel Fee crying and telling her partner Nyomi that her son was no longer alive.

Two-year-old Liam was found dead at a house in Fife in March 2014.

Rachel Fee, 31, and Nyomi Fee, 28, deny murdering Liam and blaming his death on another child.

The alleged murder happened at a house near Glenrothes. Liam's mother and her partner are originally from Ryton, Tyne and Wear.

On day seven of the trial at the High Court in Livingston, the jury watched a recording of the boy when he was being interviewed by a police officer and social worker in the weeks after Liam's death.

'Horrible things'

He said police led him past the room where paramedics battled to save Liam Fee's life.

"I saw it," he said. "That's how I know he died."

He said he heard Nyomi going into Liam's room. He said: "She said: 'I'm going to check on him'. I heard Rachel crying."

Asked if anyone had blamed him for what happened, he replied that "Auntie Ny" had said "horrible things" to him.

"[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."

The jury heard evidence that the 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 was living in the same house as Liam when the toddler suffered a catalogue of injuries, including a broken arm and leg, as well as a blunt force trauma impact to the abdomen which ruptured his heart, the jury was told.

He said Nyomi Fee's remarks putting the blame on him had made him cry.

Neglect charges

He added: "It does worry me. Because I love him and I'm sad because he died.

"I know its fine to miss him. It's not going to get me into trouble at all.

"I'm sure I haven't been got in trouble by doing anything else to him."

In another part of the interview, the boy alleged that Nyomi Fee had told him he was not allowed to get up and go to the toilet during the night. As a result, he said he frequently wet the bed.

He claimed she also smacked him and another boy in the house and made them stand naked under cold showers as punishment.

Rachel and Nyomi Fee are accused of a catalogue of child cruelty and neglect charges against Liam, the boy and another boy in their care.

The pair deny all the charges against them.

The trial, before Lord Burns, continues.