RACHEL Trelfa was an emotionless mother who – along with her partner Nyomi Fee – neglected, abused and eventually murdered her son after he became “an inconvenience”.

The three boys in the women’s care suffered a catalogue of torment and torture, including being tied up in a makeshift cage, forced to take cold showers and left confined in a dark room with snakes and rats.

The couple manipulated the youngsters and turned them against one another, telling lie after lie – the most disturbing being that one of the older boys, who were both seven at the time, had killed two-year-old Liam Fee.

Police say the level of abuse they discovered was “horrific” and claim they have never before seen an adult blame a child for such a heinous crime.

Neighbours and those who knew the couple also say they showed no remorse or sorrow after Liam’s death, with one source, linked to a farm where Trelfa kept a horse, claiming she was emotionless after her son died.

The farmer, who first met Trelfa in 2012 when Liam was just months old, explained how one of the liveries at the farm received a call from her just days after the youngster died on Saturday, March 22, 2014.

He decided to record the call, which was later passed to the police.

“She wasn’t upset, she certainly didn’t sound like someone who had lost a child,” he said. “There was no emotion, no upset, no grief.

“She was more interested in what people in the yard were saying, what I was saying, if the police or anyone else had been up.

“There was no mention of her being upset about Liam’s death.”

Trelfa and Fee moved to the village of Thornton in Fife from Ryton, Tyne and Wear, in December 2011 after Trelfa split from the boy's father, Joseph Johnson.

Fee claimed during the trial that they had planned for Trelfa to get pregnant with Liam, who was just four months old when they left, so that they could have a child together as lesbians.

Trelfa left Fee at Easter the following year and tried to get back together with Mr Johnson, claiming Fee was too controlling and had treated her badly, but just two days later the women got back together.

They went on to become civil partners in a ceremony in Kirkcaldy two months later.

The farmer, who had previously contacted social services about the boys, said despite the couple being unemployed, Trelfa managed to buy a horse at the site and took good care of the animal, named William.

But he said she never stayed long at the farm because she would receive relentless phone calls from Fee telling her to come home.

However, on the day of Liam’s murder, unusually, she visited the farm for around three hours.

The farm worker, who described Trelfa as friendly and outgoing, said: “On the Saturday afternoon she was up at the farm for about three hours, when previously she was only ever up for about half an hour.

“I even mentioned to someone that it was unusual for her to be up for so long.

“Obviously I didn’t know what had happened to Liam at that point, I only found that out on the Sunday, but I did think it was unusual that she was up for such a long time.”

During the trial Trelfa claimed she felt “really bad” about tending to her horse that day instead of staying home to care for Liam, who had suffered broken bones at that point.

“I didn’t mean to spend three hours at the stables," she told the court, in her defence. "It was like that because of the way the lifts worked out.”

The women admitted during the trial that they failed to get Liam medical treatment, but tried to blame the older boy for causing the injuries.

However, the court heard that the women searched online to find out if a broken bone could cause death, while they also searched to see if lesbians could share a prison cell.

The women also joked over texts that children are “horrible” and said they should be drowned at birth.

On the day Liam died, knowing that her son was in agony and suffering from serious injuries, Trelfa also texted Fee telling her to “gets the drinks poured” for her returning from the farm.

Detective Inspector Rory Hamilton, who led the investigation, described the women’s relationship as “very close” and claimed the children seemed to have become a burden to them.

He said: “You get this picture of Rachael and Nyomi being very tight together and it would appear that the children have maybe become something of an inconvenience.

“As far as their relationship, Nyomi would certainly appear to be quite a domineering part of the relationship.”

However, he added that despite Fee’s dominance, Liam’s death was the “culmination of a consistent course of conduct” by both of them over a long period of time.

The detective said: “Clearly the evidence has shown from the trial that both have been complicit in this, not just to Liam but to the other boys.”

Following Liam’s death, the women moved back to Tyne and Wear, where Liam’s father Joseph Johnson still lives, but were hounded out of the area after a petition and protests by angry locals.

Sources suggest they were seen again in Thornton at the start of their trial, however they were both remanded in custody earlier this month after admitting during their evidence to neglecting Liam and failing to get him medical treatment.

The civil partners are now facing life imprisonment for Liam’s murder and the string of horrors they subjected the other boys to.