The two women accused of murdering toddler Liam Fee "panicked" as they tried to dismantle a makeshift cage in which they allegedly imprisoned another boy, a jury has heard.

A video interview with a child witness was played on day 12 of the trial of Rachel Trelfa, or Fee, 31, and her civil partner Nyomi Fee, 28, who are accused of murdering two-year-old Liam and falsely blaming his death on another boy.

In the recording, filmed after Liam's death in March 2014, the child witness described the reactions of the accused after they realised the toddler was dead.

The witness, who cannot be named due to his age, said: "They were panicking about the cage. They were asking 'where, where, where' can the cage go?"

He said he heard Trelfa say they could not put it in the bedroom because the other boy would "never see you ever again". He said they then undid the cage.

He was asked: "What happened to the cage then?"

The child replied: "I don't know."

He gave evidence he had seen the other youngster kept prisoner in the cage, made from a fireguard and wire mesh from a bed.

He also claimed the couple removed a mattress from the living room where they normally slept and put it in a bedroom normally shared by the boys.

The night Liam died, he said he and the other boy were stripped naked and ordered to carry out punishment exercises because they had been "grounded".

Earlier he said the couple had forced him and the other boy to hit each other on the private parts with a training shoe and a tube of cream which caused him to bleed.

When they told him Liam was dead they ordered him and the other boy to get dressed quickly because police were on their way.

The jury at the High Court in Livingston heard the witness say the women were "screaming around the house".

He said: "They never told the police because they thought they were going to get in jail for that."

The boy said he told Trelfa "it was OK" but she replied: "It's not going to be OK if you're going to prison."

He said Fee had told him he needed to tell police what the other boy had done to him.

The child said on one occasion, Fee was lying in bed encouraging the other boy to hit him on the private parts with a trainer and he had to do the same to him.

He was asked: "Did you ever have to do anything to Liam?"

He answered: "No because he wasn't bad."

Questioned about how Trelfa made him feel at the property in Fife, he said: "Sad, unhappy."

Asked: "What about [Nyomi]?", he answered: "I didn't like her because she did stuff. Because she smacked both of us. Both of us were grounded. She would smack us."

The couple, originally from Ryton, Tyne and Wear, are accused of murdering Liam in March 2014 and attempting to defeat the ends of justice by blaming the killing on a boy.

They are also charged with a catalogue of allegations that they neglected Liam and abused two other children in their care over a two-year period.

One of these boys is the witness the jury has heard from this week,while the other is the child they are accused of falsely blaming for Liam's death.

The couple deny all the charges against them.