Nursery staff recorded injuries on toddler Liam Fee, murder trial hears

A nursery manager has told a murder trial that staff recorded a number of injuries on toddler Liam Fee during the three months he attended.

Kimberly Trail said the two-year-old started at the private facility in Fife in March 2013 and seemed a “happy wee boy” who played well with other children.

But staff were noticing bruises and he seemed to lose weight before he was removed 12 weeks later after the nursery contacted social workers, she said.

A series of photographs taken by nursery staff of Liam, who attended two days a week, showing him playing with toys, on a slide and reading books were shown to the court.

Ms Trail, 36, said in her opinion the photos revealed that over a period of time Liam’s skin had grown paler, he had bags under his eyes and he had lost weight.

Jurors were also shown a number of diagrams nursery staff used to record injuries on the toddler.

One from April 8 showed bruising to his bottom, which staff noted his mother said came from Liam “nipping himself”.

Ms Trail said it was at this point that his mother had raised the issue that Liam could have had autism and the nursery then sent two members of staff on special training to support him.

Other diagrams recorded a swollen lip, bruising to his ears and nails, and in early June social services had been contacted. The two women then removed him from the nursery, the court heard.

The jury has already been told Liam had attended a childminder before he was registered with the nursery.

Patricia Smith, 37, a woman who had used the same childminder, also gave evidence on Wednesday.

She told the court about an occasion when she saw the two accused outside a shop in Kirkcaldy with Liam in his buggy months after he had stopped going to the childminder.

“I peered into the buggy to see Liam and I noticed he had a blanket over his head and I apologised and said I didn’t realise he was sleeping. Rachel said he was awake and at that point I felt something was wrong.”

Asked by advocate depute Alex Prentice, prosecuting, what that was, she replied: “The stillness. There was something deathly about it. He was too still to be sleeping. It was very strange.”

She said she told a colleague that she was with that “something was not right” and added: “I felt sick.”

Mr Prentice asked: “What was upsetting you?”

“I didn’t know if he was drugged or dead,” she replied.

She said when she returned to her office she then phoned social work.

The court earlier heard from social worker Karen Pedder, a team manager with child protection at Fife Council.

She spoke about a meeting held to discuss Liam after concerns were raised by the childminder about an injury.

Ms Pedder, 45, said a “plausible” explanation had been given and there was no criminal action taken. The case was not looked at again until there was a contact made by the nursery, she said.

During this investigation, a social worker was told Liam had been pinching himself and the opinion had been that the marks “did not look like adult marks”, she added.

Residential childcare worker Gillian Docherty, 40, of the nursery – the Sunshine Nursery in Kirkcaldy – later told the court of “concern” she had for Liam’s health and welfare.

In a telephone record from June 5 2013, she noted she had spoken to someone “about marks and bruises to Liam and the fact that he looks and feels like he has lost weight and came to nursery with a black eye which did not look new”.

She also described his reaction on an occasion when Rachel came to pick him up from nursery.

“It was a deadpan, just staring, face. No smile,” she told the court.

Senior nursery nurse Vanessa Galloway, 38, of the same establishment, told how Nyomi had made her feel “quite intimidated” at a parents’ evening.

She said she felt that Rachel and Nyomi wanted her to tell them that Liam was autistic and the conversation was becoming “overpowering”.

“She (Nyomi) made a comment, ‘If he’s not autistic, what the f*** is wrong with him?’ Ms Galloway told the court.

She described how she noticed a change in Liam over his weeks she knew him. He looked like he had lost a lot of weight, was pale and appeared a little unhappy, she told jurors.

Of the time when his mother came to pick him up, she added: “He had an uncertain look when his mum approached him, like he was scared.”

Sandie Beaumont, 38, who became friendly with Rachel through their interest in horses, described one time when she met Rachel and Nyomi in a supermarket.

“Liam was in a buggy but I couldn’t see him, he was covered up with a blanket,” she said.

She also described receiving a hysterical phonecall from Rachel on the day Liam died, in which Rachel said that a boy had strangled the toddler.

The witness said: “She said to me ‘don’t tell anyone what has happened, I don’t want anyone thinking bad of me’.”

The murder charge alleges the couple assaulted Liam on various occasions between March 15 and March 22, 2014.

They also deny a catalogue of allegations of wilfully ill-treating and neglecting two other young boys and are further accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

They deny all the charges.

The trial continues on Thursday.

Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2016, All Rights Reserved. Pictured – High Court in Livingston (c) Scottish Courts and Tribunerals.