JURORS at BASILDON Crown Court have been hearing harrowing details of the death of an autistic  five-year-old child at his home in South Ockendon.

His mother, Claire Button, 35, denies murdering five-year-old Lincoln Button at their home on Windstar Drive in December but has admitted manslaughter.

The court heard that Lincoln, who had learning difficulties and was was also non-verbal, was attending a mainstream school at the time of his death.

He was a physically healthy boy who had been diagnosed with autism and was said to "love going to school".

Mrs Button's 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.

A post-mortem examination of Lincoln's body found no drugs in his system but smothering "could not be ruled out", prosecutor Hannah Gladwell told the court.

The court was told that at 11.25am on 15 December, the defendant had made a call to emergency services where she asked for an ambulance and told the call handler that "she was about to take an overdose".

Button, who was at home with her son, was asked if she was with anyone and she replied that it was just her alone.

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The 999 handler advised Ms Button to wait with a friend as they "might not be able to get an ambulance to her for 10 hours".

Police outside the family's home.

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.

"A voice told me to take my own life, but that I also had to take my son's life," she told the trial.

"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."

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

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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.

The trial continues.