A terminally ill mother has been jailed for 18 years after she murdered her five-year-old son with anti-depressants in an apparent double suicide attempt.
Claire Scanlon, 38, was given the minimum-term life sentence for killing Dylan Scanlon, whose badly bruised body was found on her bed.
Prosecutors told the court the mother had first informed her uncle in a nearby property that her son was ‘not breathing’ or ‘moving’ at 6.15pm on December 31, 2021.
Sadly, ‘cheeky, adventurous’ Dylan was pronounced dead three minutes after paramedics arrived at the house in Oldham, Greater Manchester.
Pathologists found the young boy had 64 separate injuries and a large amount of an antidepressant drug in his system, which experts claimed could have been fatal.
Scanlon had told paramedics that Dylan had fallen from the ladder to her attic the day before, and she had checked on him every 15 minutes before his death.
But after police arrested her, they found a note saying: ‘Don’t let them see us, just cremate us,’ which prosecutors said showed she’d planned to die alongside him.
Manchester Minshull Court also heard that Scanlon had inherited Huntington’s disease, a degenerative and incurable condition which slowly stops part of the brain working, from her mother, which she had called a ‘death sentence’.
And while Judge Mrs Justice Yip told Scanlon – who refused to attend the court – this may have affected her behaviour, she said it was no excuse for murdering her son.
She said: ‘You went from being a good mother who loved Dylan very much to murdering him.
‘I am sure that you gave Dylan a very large dose of your antidepressants, intending that he should die. You also hurt him, causing a lot of nasty bruising to his face and head through multiple blows.
‘The note found in your bedroom suggests you planned to die too.
‘It must have been frightening and upsetting when you started to get symptoms and realised you had it – you described Huntington’s as a death sentence.
‘But as the jury found in their verdict, it does not explain or excuse killing Dylan.
‘Because of your Huntington’s disease, you may not have a long life. It may be that you spend the rest of your life in prison or a secure hospital.’
Dylan’s father Gary Keenan provided a statement to the court during the hearing, where he revealed his grief at never being able to see his son again.
He said: ‘Christmas was one of Dylan’s favourite times of the year.
‘He loved the lights, the sparkles and the presents. I had so many presents to give him, but his mum said I wasn’t allowed to see him.
‘So they were still at my home in the hope I could give them to him when I saw him next – but that never happened.
‘The hardest thing I’ve done was to give his presents away to a similar boy to Dylan.’
Mr Keenan added: ‘There will always be a massive hole in our hearts at the loss of Dylan, and we miss him every day.
‘I don’t feel I can mourn Dylan until the trial has been completed. We must keep fighting because he isn’t here to speak for himself.’
Ms Wilding told the court that Scanlon had picked up a repeat prescription for Mirtazapine, an antidepressant, 11 days before Dylan died.
And a blood sample found Dylan had 9,951 micrograms of the drug per litre of blood in his system.
Christopher Madden, a forensic toxicologist, who analysed samples of blood said this amount would be consistent with other fatalities from mirtazapine.
Mr Madden told the jury that the deaths of eight adults who overdosed on mirtazapine found they had 1,000 to 4,400 micrograms per litre of blood.
But he couldn’t tell how Dylan had ingested the mirtazapine and if it was taken in one single go or administered across multiple occasions.
Scanlon was detained under the mental health act and taken to Edenfield Hospital in Prestwich following her arrest.
And it’s there that support worker Joshua Davidson claims Scanlon had confessed to inflicting fatal injuries on Dylan by dropping him from her attic.
He previously told the court Scanlon said to him: ‘I killed my son.’
Senior Investigating Officer for Greater Manchester Police Phil Reade said: ‘Our thoughts remain with those who knew and loved Dylan – particularly his dad and brother.’
