Boy tells of being put in cage by Liam Fee murder accused

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

A child has told the Liam Fee murder trial one of the accused forced his hands into the toddler's mouth on the night the two-year-old died in Fife.

The young boy also told police he was sometimes put in a cage made from a fire guard by two women accused of murdering Fife toddler Liam Fee.

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

Rachel and Nyomi Fee deny murdering him and blaming his death on another child, and mistreating two other children.

The boy said he was in the living room of the house that night when he heard Nyomi shouting "Liam's dead" - he said she then shouted at him "do you want to see what you did to Liam".

The boy then described standing at the door of Liam's bedroom and seeing him lying on the floor.

He said Nyomi then took his hands and forced them into the toddlers mouth.

In taped interviews, the boy said the pair used cable ties and bars kept under their mattress to make a cage in the living room.

The child - who was blamed by the women for the toddler's death - said he was sometimes forced to spend the night there, naked with his hands tied behind his back. He said sometimes his hands would swell up.

On day eight 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.

At other times, the pair watched TV while he was in the cage, the boy said.

When asked by a police officer why he was put there, he said: "I don't know."

Rachel Fee, 31, and Nyomi Fee, 28, who are originally from Ryton, Tyne and Wear, deny a series of mistreatment and neglect charges against two other children, as well as the murder charge. The trial continues.