A mother who murdered her toddler son on the day of a family court hearing has been sentenced to life behind bars.
Carol Hodgson, 40, smothered two-year-old Daniel Hodgson Green with a plastic bag before trying to kill herself at her home in Guisborough, North Yorkshire.
Daniel’s heartbroken dad, Stefan Green, revealed in a moving victim impact statement how Hodgson had cut him out of his son’s life when he was a baby and disappeared.
Mr Green was applying to the family court to have more contact on 2 February, the same day Daniel was killed.
He was expecting a fact-finding hearing at the court before he was given the devastating news his son had died.
His statement was read at Teesside Crown Court – based in the same complex as the family court – where Hodgson pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to a minimum term of 18 years and four months behind bars.
Mr Green said: “I wish I could say more on Daniel’s personality but we only knew him as a baby before Carol disappeared with him and cut off all contact.
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“He was my entire world, the day he was born I truly knew what love was, I knew what it felt like to have a higher purpose, to do everything within my power to give him the best life, one full of love and happiness.
“He was taken before he could know who he was, what he wanted to do with his life, and how much he meant to so many people,” the statement added.
Emergency services arrived at Hodgson’s home in Upper Garth Gardens to find her mother performing CPR on her.
Desperate efforts were made to revive Daniel, found lying lifeless next to his mother, but he could not be saved.
Hodgson was rushed to hospital and survived.
She had written notes for her mother and other family members which suggested she had planned Daniel’s murder, the court heard.
Prosecutor Alistair MacDonald QC said Mr Green had applied for more access to Daniel and to stop Hodgson changing his surname, moving or taking him on holiday without prior notice.
Mr MacDonald said: “It is no coincidence that she carried out the killing on the very morning the family court was due to hold a fact-finding hearing.”
Sentencing, Judge Paul Watson described the murder as a “horrifying and truly awful crime”, aggravated by Daniel’s vulnerability, the abuse of trust and the fact it was premeditated.
“The fact that you genuinely intended to take your own life as well, which I accept to be true, offers no mitigation for the taking of Daniel’s,” the judge said.
Defending, Richard Wright QC said Hodgson developed a “wholly irrational” but “genuinely held belief” that she was compelled to act as she did.
