A loss of innocence

Incredible abuse can sometimes be hard to spot, even when injuries are extremely serious. Detective Inspector Rory Hamilton explains the lessons from the deeply disturbing murder of a two-year-old boy by his carers. When police officers arrived at the Fife home of Rachel Trelfa and her civil partner Nyomi Fee on Saturday March 22, 2014, following the sudden and unexpected death of Trelfa’s two-year-old son Liam, the two women made sure they knew exactly who was responsible. Calling to one of the two other children living in the house, Fee told seven-year-old Boy A when he emerged from the bedroom: “Tell them what you did. Tell them exactly what you did.” “I killed him,” said the boy, before placing his hand over his mouth to indicate that Liam had been smothered to death. Trelfa had been away from the house that afternoon tending to her horse, leaving the children in the care of Fee. She explained that, just before 8pm Fee had gone into Liam’s room and found him unconscious in his pushchair. She had tried to revive him without success and then called an ambulance. Detective Inspector Rory Hamilton, who had served with Police Scotland for 22 years, was due to transfer to the Major Investigations Team the following week, but was asked to start immediately and become the senior investigating officer (SIO) in the case. He said an initial inspection of the house found the property was well furnished with no obvious signs of anything that could be described as neglect or abuse, but the idea that this was either a tragic accident or a deliberate act by one youngster against another did not sit right with him. “I had some concerns,” said Det Insp Hamilton. “In my experience, I had never come across a case in which one child had killed another in that manner. “The first decision I had to make was whether to keep the other children in the house – Boy A and Boy B – together or separate them. “Although there was considerable resistance from social services, I decided to separate them and, in the end, that turned out to be very important.” The two boys were sent to separate foster homes and the team began gathering evidence from the property, as well investigating the backgrounds of Trelfa and Fee. Trelfa had previously been in a long-term relationship with Liam’s father but that had ended soon after she began an affair with Fee. The pair had set up home together, moving from just outside Newcastle to the small town of Thornton in Fife, and cut off all contact with Liam’s father. They had been civil partners since June 2012. There had never been any concerns from social workers south of the border, but that changed in January 2013 when a child minder hired to look after Liam began to notice bruises on his arms and about his body. She contacted the Scottish Child Minding Association and Care Inspectorate to report her concerns, before withdrawing her services. As a result, Liam began attending the local nursery, but by March staff there also began to notice bruises and scratches on his face. They also noted that, while Liam was a happy boy during his time there, he would become physically withdrawn the moment his mother arrived to pick him up, as if he did not want to go home. A social worker was assigned to the case and went to see the couple, who explained that Liam was autistic and that all of his injuries were self-inflicted. “We spent a lot of time looking into autism,” said Det Insp Hamilton. “And we found you simply cannot diagnose it in a child of that age.” Soon after being assigned, the social worker went on long-term sick leave. Further concerns were raised in September 2013 when the two women told a neighbour they gave Liam drugs to keep him quiet so that they could have some peace. In January 2014, Boy A stopped attending school because he had injuries to the tops of both of his feet that had left open wounds. The couple claimed the injuries had been caused by ill-fitting roller blades. Another case agent was assigned, but was rarely able to gain access to t