Liam’s mum: ‘I should have got him help’
AMOTHER accused of murdering her two-year-old son has admitted her conduct had a part to play in his death as she “should have got him help”.
Rachel Fee, or Trelfa, 31, formerly of Macclesfield, also said if she had taken her son Liam Fee to hospital for treatment for a broken leg, he would be “alive” today.
The High Court in Livingston heard that despite suspecting he had had a broken leg for several days, Ms Trelfa went to look after her horse for three hours on the day Liam died, March 22, 2014, which she said she now regretted.
Ms Trelfa is on trial at the High Court in Livingston alongside her civil partner Nyomi Fee, 23, where they deny murdering the toddler at a house near Glenrothes in Fife by repeatedly inflicting “blunt force trauma” to his head and body.
They also deny falsely blaming his death on another boy.
Questioned by her lawyer, Rachel Trelfa initially denied Liam’s death was anything to do with her.
Brian McConnachie QC asked her for a second time: “Do you think his death has anything to do with your conduct?”
She replied: “I should have got him help, so yes.”
Ms Fee told her trial she had never harmed the child on any occasion.
She did accept that Liam would be here today if she had taken him to hospital for treatment to a leg injury sustained days before his death – an injury prosecutors claim would have left the “defenceless” boy writhing in pain and in “intense agony”. Fee admitted that her failure to seek the required medical help amounted to neglect and ill-treatment, telling jurors: “I hate myself for that.”
Questioned by her defence QC Mark Stewart, Fee said she was “absolutely devastated” to find Liam in that state and tried to resuscitate him.
“It wasn’t working. He wasn’t coming back, I’d lost him.”
She said she felt “gutted” and “was in complete shock,” before adding: “It kills us.”
Fee also spoke of incidents she said occurred on March 16 that year in which she found another boy in the house “stamping” on Liam’s leg. ●● PROCEEDING