A pair of 'cruel and pitiless' lesbian killers who Googled 'can wives be in prison together' have been jailed for life today for battering two-year-old Liam Fee to death and trying to blame the murder on another boy, the Daily Mail reports.

Toddler Liam suffered more than 30 external injuries when he was beaten to death by his mother Rachel Fee, 31, and her partner Nyomi Fee, 29, at their home near Glenrothes, Fife, east Scotland.

The couple, who were convicted of the shocking murder following a seven-week trial, have now been sentenced to life in prison at the High Court in Edinburgh by a judge who condemned their 'cruel and pitiless regime of ill-treatment and neglect'.

Receiving mandatory life sentences, Nyomi Fee was ordered to spend a minimum of 24 years in prison, while Liam's mother Rachel was told she must serve behind bars for 23-and-a-half years. 

The pair displayed little emotion as their sentences were delivered, one after the other, and there was silence in the packed courtroom as the pair were led away to the cells.

Liam's father Joseph Johnson looked straight ahead as the women were told the punishment parts of their life sentences.

The court had heard how defenceless Liam died at his home in March 2014 having suffered 'car crash-style injuries' including a ruptured heart as a result of severe blunt force trauma to his body.

The trial heard how the two killers, originally from Ryton, Tyne and Wear, carried out two years of sustained attacks on the toddler and two other boys as social services repeatedly failed to act.

The pair's depraved abuse included imprisoning one boy in a cage made from a fire guard, using cable ties to bind his hands behind his back.

They also tied another boy naked to a chair in a dark room with nine snakes and several rats, forcing him to eat his own vomit and telling him a boa constrictor 'ate naughty little boys'. They also forced the youngsters to take cold showers when they wet the bed. 

Court conviction