Warning - this story contains details some readers may find upsetting.

A MOTHER who stabbed her son to death after suffering years of delusions and psychosis has been detained in a mental health hospital indefinitely.

Emma Jackson, of Bromsgrove, Faringdon, showed little emotion throughout her sentencing hearing at Oxford Crown Court yesterday having already admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility on March 10 this year.

The 41-year old paranoid schizophrenic mouthed a 'thank you' as she was told she would not be sent to prison but to a mental health hospital indefinitely for fatally stabbing her five-year-old boy Tyler Warmington.

Sentencing, Judge Ian Pringle QC said: "This is a tragic case and the reports I have read from three eminent psychologists have a degree of unanimity about them.

"It seems at the time of this act you were suffering paranoid schizophrenia.

"Your life sentence is living with the knowledge that you have killed your son."

During the hearing the court heard that fears over Tyler's wellbeing were first raised after staff at his local primary school noticed his absence on the morning of March 13 last year.

After efforts to contact his mother failed, the court heard a staff member from the school went to the Faringdon home first that day and again the following day.

There was no answer and school staff quickly became suspicious after noticing movement behind a set of curtains, and so the police were called.

A police community support officer named in court as Arthur Gunn duly arrived at the address shortly after 1.20pm and Jackson opened the door 'covered in blood' with various wounds on her neck and wrists, having seemingly injured herself.

Asked where her son Tyler was, she told police he was 'sleeping upstairs'. 

When more officers attended they discovered the boy dead in an upstairs bedroom partially covered by a duvet, with 13 stab wounds on his chest and back.

Prosecutor Alan Blake said there had been evidence of 'severe force' in the blows inflicted on him by his mother. Jackson repeatedly asked officers at the scene if Tyler was 'still sleeping,' the court heard.
Police also found a kitchen knife on the bed together with a number of blood stains in the room.

Jackson was arrested on suspicion of murder before she was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital for treatment for her own self-inflicted wounds before being sectioned under the Mental Health Act and transferred to the Littlemore Mental Health Centre for ongoing treatment.

Mr Blake told the court that in answering questions from police she had very little recollection of what had happened.

He said: "She vaguely recalled the circumstances of her arrest but could not recall injuring herself. [There was] a recollection of waking up and messing around with Tyler in the bed. 

"She recalled saying to police that Tyler was sleeping and said she must have seen him.

"Tyler was a happy little boy she said [to police], but she admitted she had taken to keeping a knife in her bedroom due to her fear and paranoia that someone would come to take Tyler away."

The court also heard at the sentencing hearing that her being sectioned under the Mental Health Act following the stabbing had not been the first time she had been involved with mental health services.

Mr Blake added: "Concerns about her mental health began as early as 2001 and there were relatively frequent admissions to hospital with mental health related conditions since 2004 onwards.

"It was evident that in January 2015 there was something of a mental health crisis resulting in the health visitor expressing concerns for Tyler.

"Miss Jackson indicated she was concerned that she could not keep him safe. As a result of that it appears Tyler was taken into care."

A month later Jackson improved, the court heard, and Tyler was returned to her, but her mental health problems persisted.

Giving evidence during the hearing Jackson's clinician Dr Julia Cartwright said that her patient had suffered from various forms of delusion and auditory hallucinations as well as 'formal thought disorder' in which she was unable to process thoughts rationally and logically, and struggled with depression.

She also suffered from 'delusional moods' as well as 'persecutory moods', the court heard.

Jackson was sentenced under the Mental Health Act to an indefinite period of detention in hospital while she undergoes treatment and cannot be released from hospital until permitted by a mental health tribunal.