A mother who denied killing her baby despite confessing 'I killed him' to officers during a stand-off at her home was convicted of murder today.

Mother-of-six Emma Barnett, 36, had already had her five older children taken away by the authorities when she learned 14-month-old Oakley was to be removed from her care too.

In what the prosecution described as a 'last act of control', she hid with him in her loft and fed him a 'lethal' cocktail of prescription drugs from his bottle and a syringe.

He was unresponsive when police finally discovered her hideaway and lost his battle to survive weeks later in hospital.

Self-serving Barnett – seen glaring at the camera for her mugshot in a police custody suite – claimed to officers and the jury that she had mixed up her baby bottles and was intending to drink the fatal concoction herself. 

She also suggested she may have rolled onto her son while they were sleeping.

But the jury saw through her lies and convicted her after deliberating for just six hours.

Barnett, who wore a black tracksuit in the dock, showed no emotion as the jury delivered their unanimous verdict.

Mr Justice Derek Sweeting KC told her he was adjourning sentencing until June 5 for pre-sentence reports to be completed.

Turning to the jurors, he said: 'There is, in fact, only one sentence for murder and that is a life sentence.

'The job I will have is setting the minimum term.'

No family members were in court to support Barnett.

Officers' bodycam footage showed how they had gently tried to cajole the defendant down from her loft when they found her there.

But the mood changed after her tearful confession that she had killed her son, with officers frantically trying to force their way in before finding her stricken son.

Barnett, who had taken an overdose of over-the-counter painkillers, tried to hang herself in the loft but was grabbed by a heroic officer who bore her weight until the rope was cut. She was then arrested for murder at the scene.

Opening the case earlier this month, prosecutor Chris Paxton KC said: 'It is a sad and tragic reality of this case that the defendant mixed a deadly combination of medication, of drugs prescribed to her, in baby bottles and a syringe, to end the life of her son Oakley, before she sought to end her own life using that blue rope in the loft.

'No doubt the defendant was in turmoil that day but her actions were deliberate and purposeful in setting out to hide from the police and authorities, to set a false trail in the forest, to allow her to move up into her loft with Oakley and to ensure that they died together.

'Ensuring perhaps, in one last act, to demonstrate that she had control and unlike with her other five children, Oakley was not to be taken – rather they would die together.'

Barnett, of Loughton, Essex, had been known to county council social workers since September 2022 and Oakley was placed on a Child Protection Plan when he was born in September the following year, Cambridge Crown Court was told.

The defendant had 'episodes of crisis when her mental health suffered' and in July 2024, long-term fostering orders were made for four of her children, with another one going to live with their father.

An interim care order was also put in place in September that year, which included providing Barnett – who had expressed concern 'she couldn't look after [Oakley]' – with support from 7pm to 7am every day and throughout the day as well, when needed.

A legal hearing was scheduled to take place on November 8, 2024, to decide what would happen with him but Barnett announced they were both unwell and she would have to attend via a videolink.

Mr Paxton told the court: 'We say not attending was part of the defendant's plan to ensure she had control over what would happen to her and Oakley.

'And, as we shall see, even if they were unwell, as the defendant claimed, she was well enough to drive her car and walk with Oakley to a local pharmacy.'

Barnett collected her prescriptions for Promethazine, an antihistamine, and Mirtazapine, an antidepressant, while at the pharmacy, the prosecutor said, before later leaving her Nissan Leaf at Epping Forest.

This, Mr Paxton added, was 'so that she could send the authorities, like social workers or the police, on a false trail'.

After appearing online for the court hearing, the defendant messaged a social worker at around 7pm, saying: 'I'm going to the Forest.'

She added 'gotta lose my phone now', sparking the police search.

Her car was located at 10pm and it wasn't until around 11.30pm that officers from Essex Constabulary looking in her modest terraced home heard a 'baby cry' and realised the noise was coming from the loft.

In the police bodycam footage shown to court, a group of five officers could be heard pleading with Barnett to come down from the loft.

'Emma, can you talk to me at least?' one said, before adding: 'We just want to make sure you're all right.'

They continued negotiating with the uncooperative mother, who was sitting on the access hatch to the loft, preventing them from entering.

Sergeant Ben Keith was then heard saying: 'I just want to have a chat. Can you open the loft hatch?'

Barnett told officers she and the baby were 'fine' before shouting: 'Just leave me alone.'

By 12.15am, she was given the option of allowing a camera in or a forced entry would be made.

Her shouted response of 'I killed him' sparked a frantic effort to access the loft, with Sergeant Keith scrambling to get a desk under the hatch to allow him to reach it.

He could be heard swearing as he noticed Oakley's 'limp and lifeless' body and barked: 'Get an ambulance.'

The officer then lunged at Barnett to stop her attempting to take her own life with the noose she had rigged up in the loft.

'I need a knife to cut her down!' he shouted at colleagues below.

Oakley's heart was restarted following CPR but he remained in a coma and died at the Royal London Hospital on December 31 after life support was withdrawn.

A post-mortem examination showed he had suffered a 'catastrophic brain injury' as a result of cardiac arrest caused by the prescription drugs in his system, which suppressed his ability to breathe.

Barnett claimed during her first police interview that she had intended to use one of Oakley's bottles to mix the 'deadly cocktail' for her own suicide attempt as the authorities were taking him away.

Asked if she had 'accidentally' given the bottle to her son, she told officers: 'Must've done if it was in his system.'

In a subsequent interview, she claimed that she might have 'laid on him' while in the loft and insisted she 'did not want to harm or hurt' him.

Mr Paxton told the court doubt was cast on Barnett's claims because traces of the prescription drugs were found on two bottles in the loft, as well as the syringe.

She also paid money into the bank accounts of two of her children with a transaction reference of 'love you forever' but didn't set aside anything for her youngest child.

Mr Paxton described the payments as 'a final goodbye, knowing that she was to take Oakley's life later and perhaps her own'.

Pathologist Virginia Fitzpatrick-Swallow, who conducted the post-mortem examination on Oakley, also told the jury the defendant's suggestion that Oakley may have died as a result of her rolling onto him as they slept was 'purely speculative from a medical point of view'.

'Co-sleeping' deaths usually resulted in a 'negative postmortem' where no direct cause of death is determined, she added.

'What we do have is objective, very compelling evidence of mirtazapine and promethazine in the body which provides an explanation for the cause of death.'

Barnett gave evidence during the two-week trial and continued to deny any plan to kill her son.

Asked why she took him into her loft, she said: 'I wanted more time with Oakley. I thought by hiding I would get a couple more days at least.'

Detective Inspector James Holmes said: 'This was an extremely upsetting and difficult investigation for everybody involved. Our thoughts remain with Oakley and everyone who loved him.'