Jurors at the Liam Fee murder trial wept yesterday as they were shown a police video of the toddler’s dead body.
The silent recording was taken by detectives in the hours after the two-year-old was found dead at the home that he shared with his mother, Rachel Fee and her civil partner, Nyomi Fee, 28.
On the 16th day of their murder trial at the High Court in Livingston, jurors watched the 12-minute clip, which showed every room of the house near Glenrothes, Fife.
Among the scenes was Liam’s bedroom, the living room and hall, where numerous family photos, including some of Liam, could be seen hanging on the wall as well as heart-shaped decorations and children’s toys.
The final images of the video showed the boy lying dead on his back on the bedroom floor, dressed in his CBeebies pyjamas and covered by a green duvet with a cot and buggy near by.
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As the recording came to an end the jurors, some of whom had been visibly upset, asked the judge, Lord Burns, for a break in proceedings.
The two accused, who deny murdering Liam and falsely blaming his death on a young boy, also wept in the dock. When the camera reached Liam’s bedroom, Rachel Fee, 31, closed her eyes to hold back tears and pulled a scarf up over her mouth. Her partner, 28, bent her head down and buried her face in her scarf before wiping away her tears.
The video emerged as part of evidence from Detective Constable Mark Falconer, a crime scene manager with Police Scotland, who went to the home with a police scene examiner at 1.15am on March 23, 2014.
The court also heard from two PCs who said that when they responded to a 999 call that a child had a heart attack it was “mayhem”. They said that a seven-year-old boy was brought to them by Rachel Fee and told them that he had strangled Liam before bedtime.
Jurors were told that Niall Garvey, the family’s GP, had received concerns about the toddler’s odd behaviour and poor speech and he had written in a letter that “obviously there are some alarm bells regarding what is possibly going on in this household”.
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The two accused deny the charges and the trial continues.