Jury out in toddler murder case

The jury in the trial of a woman accused of murdering her toddler son and concealing his body has retired to consider its verdict.Kimberley Hainey, 37, denies murdering 23-month-old Declan at their home in Bruce Road, Paisley, Renfrewshire.She also denies neglecting and ill-treating the child and failing to get him medical attention.Police discovered the toddler's decomposed and mummified body in his cot on 30 March 2010.The trial, before Lord Woolman at the High Court in Glasgow, got under way on 4 November.The judge told the jury to take as long as it needed to come to a decision.He urged them to give the case their full consideration.Lord Woolman added: "Return your verdict at any time, don't rush. Take as long or as short a time as you need."Earlier he told the jurors to put aside any emotion of sympathy for either Declan or the accused.Ms Hainey is accused of wilfully ill-treating and neglecting her son over a 19-month period between September 2008 and March last year at Bruce Road, Paisley.The Crown has charged Ms Hainey with either murdering her son or alternatively of neglecting him by failing to provide medical care for him whereby his physical and psychological development were impaired.It is alleged that she left her son alone and unattended in the house for excessive periods of time, and failed to provide medical aid and care for him.The Crown alleges that Ms Hainey pretended that Declan was alive in an attempt to defeat the ends of justice between July 2009 and March 2010.Ms Hainey denies all the charges against her. She has already been cleared of giving Declan drugs.