South Ockenden woman accused of murdering son heard ‘voices’

A woman accused of murdering her autistic son at their home broke down in tears as she told a jury about “voices in her head” before his death.

Claire Button, 35, of South Ockendon in Essex, denies murdering five-year-old Lincoln at their home in December but has admitted manslaughter.

“A voice told me to take my own life, but that I also had to take my son’s life,” she told her trial at Basildon Crown Court.

“It was a dark, deep, scary, demanding, male voice and it wouldn’t leave me alone unless I did it.”

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Ms Button, of Windstar Drive, told police during an interview on 21 December that she “killed her son”, but denies the charge of murder.

Her husband Nicky Button came home from work on 15 December and found the body of his son, and his wife, who was surrounded by tablets and had injuries to her wrists, the jury heard.

Ms Button said she had been having suicidal thoughts while struggling to cope with her son’s behaviour on the day, when they had been out shopping.

She told the court she had called emergency services on the same day and a call handler told her “it would take 10 hours” before anyone would turn up.

“I just thought the ambulance service didn’t want to help if they were going to take that long and the voice told me I had to go through with it,” she said.

“I was talking back to it saying ‘no, I love him too much to do this’ before it then asked me to pick up a pillow.

“The voice was telling me we didn’t belong in this world.

“I remember taking the pillow off of Lincoln’s face, before it told me it was now my turn.”

Ms Button told the jury she had been having suicidal thoughts in the weeks before her son’s death.

Her husband’s police interview detailed how his wife’s anxiety began at the start of the summer holidays in July 2024, when Lincoln had just finished his first year at school.

“She would wake up anxious about what the day will bring, what Lincoln will demand out of her,” Mr Button said, describing how she would vomit most mornings due to stress.

Giving evidence, psychiatrist Dr Frank Farnham said he believed a defence of diminished responsibility was plausible.

He told the jury that medical treatment for depression had mixed effects for some patients and that Ms Button had been offered a non-medical intervention called social prescribing, but she had never properly received it.

“She didn’t receive any meaningful social prescribing and there had been no evidence of any meaningful psychiatric treatment for her,” he said.

On Tuesday, the trial heard more evidence from Mr Button, who said his wife was “fighting demons”.

The trial continues.