Mum ‘murdered’ her son, 5, on New Year’s Eve after ‘telling ex “you’ll never see him again”‘
A MUM is accused of murdering her five-year-old son on New Year’s Eve after telling her ex “you’ll never see him again”.
Claire Scanlon, 38, is on trial after allegedly beating the boy, named Dylan, before giving him a fatal overdose of anti-depressants.
Minshull Street Court in Manchester heard that the lad was found dead by emergency services on the evening of December 31 last year.
Jurors were told that Scanlon had run to her uncle’s house just minutes earlier to tell him Dylan wasn’t breathing, as well as phoning the boy’s dad Gary Keenan.
He was found with “significant” bruising on his head and body and was not breathing.
Lisa Wilding KC, prosecuting, said that toxicology reports showed that Dylan had been poisoned with a poisoned with a prescription drug.
Ms Wilding told the court: “The prosecution say that Claire Scanlon took the ultimate step to take Dylan away from her ex-partner [Mr Keenan].
“She deliberately fed him the drug that killed him.
“In her anger she also beat Dylan with sufficient force to bruise muscles on both sides of his head and across his face.”
Scanlon denies the charges of murder and child cruelty.
However, the court heard that investigators found that she had left a voicemail for Mr Keane just two weeks earlier, in which she said: “I promise you, you won’t see him again. You’ll see. Bye. Go and enjoy your life.”
In another, from just four days before Dylan’s death, she added: “I promise you’re never gonna see my son again.”
Ms Wilding added that cops found note in the bedroom drawer which suggested that Scanlon “planned for both she and Dylan to die”.
For her part, Scanlon claimed that Dylan’s injuries were caused by him falling from a stepladder and that he took the pills himself.
She also said that he had seemed fine 15 minutes before he was found unresponsive.
But an expert told the court they believed that the injuries to the boy were “non-accidental”, while the prosecution alleged that Scanlon had told a nurse at the mental health unit where she awaited trial that she had killed him.
She is also alleged to have called Mr Keane while being questioned by police and said: “This is all your f****** fault.”
The trial, which is expected to last into next month, continues.