Dylan Scanlon: Mum who poisoned and beat son, 5, guilty of murder

Senior crown prosecutor Nicola Carter said Scanlon's role was to "love and protect" Dylan, but instead she chose to kill him

A mother who "deliberately poisoned" her son on New Year's Eve by giving him her medication and beat him has been convicted of murder.

Dylan Scanlon was found dead at Claire Scanlon's home on Elm Road in Limeside, Oldham, on 31 December 2021.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Scanlon, 37, had sent abusive messages to the five-year-old's father that said he would not see Dylan again.

She will be sentenced at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on Friday.

A CPS representative said following Dylan's death, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) found a note in the house suggesting she had planned for them both to die.

'Ultimate step'

They said she told her family and the paramedics sent to the house at about 18:20 GMT different reasons why the boy had bruises in an attempt to cover for the fact she had beaten him.

Toxicological tests found levels of the antidepressant mirtazapine, which had been prescribed to Scanlon, at nine times the fatal dose for an adult in Dylan's system.

He was also found to have a significant number of bruises to his head and body.

Speaking after the hearing, Senior Crown Prosecutor Nicola Carter said Scanlon's role as a parent "was to love and protect her son from harm, but she took the ultimate step to take... Dylan away from her ex-partner".

She said Scanlon "initially told her family that a ladder had fallen on Dylan, then a short time later she told a paramedic that he had fallen down some steps".

"The truth was that she had deliberately poisoned and beaten him," she added.

In January 2022, Oldham Council confirmed Dylan's case would be the focus of a review, which would scrutinise contact between several different organisations and his family.

It said those organisations would include the authority itself, Greater Manchester Police and his school.

The police force also said it had the case to its professional standards branch and the Independent Office for Police Conduct due to "previous contact" with the family.

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