Gay couple in child murder case challenge evidence

A mother and her lesbian lover accused of murdering a two-year-old boy are seeking to have the evidence of two child witnesses ruled inadmissible at their trial.

Liam Johnson.

Nyomi Fee and Rachael Trelfa deny battering Fee’s son Liam Johnson to death over eight days in 2014 then trying to frame a seven-year-old boy for his murder.

The High Court at Livingston was told yesterday that two other boys they are accused of ill-treating had been due to record their evidence during a home visit by court officials next week.

But the filming session was cancelled at short notice yesterday after the couple’s legal team challenged the way earlier interviews with the boys had been conducted.

Emma Toner, Fee’s defence counsel, said she had instructed an edited report by psychology expert Dr Brian Tully.

Based on his findings she said both defence teams were raising objections about the admissibility of the evidence and various productions in the case.

She said a joint motion to discharge the hearing to take evidence on commission on 5 and 6 November was being lodged late because the latest consultation with Dr Tully had not taken place until 9 October, more than a month after the initial preliminary hearing.

She said an evidential hearing would be necessary to determine matters raised in the defence minute. Gavin Anderson, defending Trelfa, joined with Miss Toner’s motion.

Alex Prentice, principal advocate depute, said the cancellation was “not terribly satisfactory”.

The judge ordered the defence to lodge the new expert report within four weeks and instructed both sides to arrange a meeting between the Crown and defence experts – by video link if necessary – before the evidential hearing at Edinburgh High Court on 9-11 December.

The trial is due to begin at the High Court in Livingston on April 4.

Fee and Trelfa, who is also known as Fee, deny murdering Liam by inflicting blunt force trauma to his head and body by unknown means in Thornton, Fife, on various occasions between 15 and 22 March, 2014.

They have also pleaded not guilty to attempting to defeat the ends of justice by falsely telling a 999 operator, ambulance staff, police, friends and family that a seven-year-old boy was responsible for Liam’s death.

It is alleged that on various occasions between January 2012 and March 2014 they failed to provide Liam with adequate exercise or stimulation by leaving him in his pushchair and putting a blanket over his face and leaving him in a darkened room. It is claimed they failed to provide him with enough food and gave him medicine intended for another child and Calpol to sedate him.

The women also deny harming two boys from January 2012 to March 2014.

It is alleged they compelled one of the boys to stand naked under a cold shower as punishment for wetting the bed, bound him in a metal fireguard cage, with cable ties, string, and a dressing gown cord, placed items on him and struck him.