An Oldham mum accused of killing her five-year-old son warned the boy’s father he would ‘never see him again’ in a chilling voicemail sent just days before his death, a murder trial has heard.

Claire Scanlon, of Elm Road, Limeside, is accused of killing her son Dylan Scanlon, five, at their home on December 31, 2021.

The 38-year-old has been charged with one count of murder, with an alternative lesser count of manslaughter, as well as a further alternative lesser count of child cruelty.

She has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against her.

During the second day of her trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court today (Tuesday) prosecutor Lisa Wilding told the court that Scanlon was left “angry and depressed” following the breakdown of her relationship with Dylan’s father Gary Keenan and become “obsessed” with him.

The court heard that in the two months prior to Dylan’s death Scanlon sent voicemails and messages to Mr Keenan multiple times a day.

On December 15, 2021 she left him a voicemail message that said: “I promise you, you won’t see him again. You’ll see. Bye. Go and enjoy your life”.

Then on December 27, she left a message saying: “I promise you now, carry on treating me like a k*** h***, I promise you’re never gonna see my son again” and “treat me like a d*** I’ll stop you from going near him”.

A few days later on December 30, she sent a final message that said: “You’re just showing, all you want to do is act like me and Dyl weren’t in your life and crack on, make a new life with your new bird.

"So you go and do that. I’ll solve it for you. Go and enjoy your new life with her.”

The next day Dylan was dead.

At 6.15pm on December 31, Scanlon ran from her home over the road to her uncle's house.

She told her uncle and other family members that Dylan was "not breathing or moving".

Scanlon’s family members went to check on Dylan and found him “lifeless” in her double bed with a "significant number of bruises" on his head and body.

The emergency services were called, and Scanlon told the paramedics that Dylan had fallen off a ladder the day before.

She said she had been checking on him every 15 minutes and that he had been chatting and playing with the dog just 15 minutes before.

Dylan was pronounced dead three minutes after the paramedics arrived.

The first police officer arrived at 6.30pm and shortly afterwards Scanlon was arrested on suspicion of murder and taken into custody. She was later sectioned under the mental health act.

During the period of time that Scanlon was being interviewed by police she made a telephone call to Mr Keenan.

The call lasted a total of 19 seconds and she said: “This is all your f****** fault.” 

He told her that she should not be calling him, and the line went dead.

The court also heard that while she was in custody Scanlon told a member of staff she had killed her son.

A postmortem found that Dylan had 64 separate injuries on his head and body, but Ms Wilding said this was not what killed him.

A blood sample found Dylan had 9,951 micrograms of Mirtazapine, per litre of blood in his system. Mirtazapine is an antidepressant which had been prescribed to Claire Scanlon.

Ms Wilding told the jury that 1,000 micrograms of Mirtazapine, per litre of blood in an adult is fatal and that Dylan had nine times that amount in his bloodstream.

Ms Wilding told the court that Scanlon had picked up a repeat prescription for Mirtazapine 11 days before Dylan died.

The court was also told that police found a note that suggested that Scanlon planned for both she and Dylan to die.

The note was read to the court. One section read: “Don’t let them see us, just cremate us. All of this could have been avoided if his family and Gary left us alone.”

A blood sample was taken from Scanlon on January 1 and was found to contain Mirtazapine at 360 micrograms per litre of blood, which indicates therapeutic use.

Addressing the jury, Ms Wilding said: “The prosecution say that Claire Scanlon took the ultimate step to take Dylan away from her ex partner – 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.”