Moment mother hiding in loft with her baby son tells officers 'I've killed him' before they force their way in to find his 'lifeless' body after she gave him 'lethal cocktail' of prescription drugs, court hears

Published: 23:23, 18 May 2026 | Updated: 23:25, 18 May 2026 This is the heart-stopping moment police forced their way into a loft where a woman was hiding with her baby after she allegedly told them: ‘I’ve killed him.’ Officers had been hunting for Emma Barnett, 36, after she failed to appear in person at a legal hearing which decided her 14-month-old son, Oakley, would be taken into care, a court has heard. The mother-of-six, whose five other children had already been removed from her, fed her youngest child a ‘lethal cocktail’ of prescription drugs while they were concealed in her home as a ‘last act of control’, it is claimed. The prosecution say Barnett had already given the concoction to Oakley when officers finally located her and demanded she allow in a camera or they would force their way in - leading to her dramatic confession. In the police bodycam footage shown to court, a group of five officers can be heard pleading with Barnett to come down from the loft. ‘Emma, can you talk to me at least?’ one is heard saying before adding: ‘We just want to make sure you’re all right.’ They continue negotiating with the uncooperative mother, who is sitting on the access hatch to the loft, preventing them from entering. Sgt Ben Keith is then heard saying: ‘I just want to have a chat. Can you open the loft hatch?’ This is the heart-stopping moment police forced their way into a loft where a woman was hiding with her baby after she allegedly told them: ‘I’ve killed him' Emma Barnett, 36, is accused of murdering her 14-month-old son Oakley by allegedly feeding him a 'lethal cocktail' of prescription drugs  Barnett, of Loughton, Essex, tells officers she and the baby are ‘fine’ before shouting: ‘Just leave me alone.’ She is then given the option of allowing a camera in or a forced entry. But her shouted response of ‘I killed him’ sparks a frantic effort to access the loft, with Sgt Keith scrambling to get a desk under the hatch to allow him to reach it. He can be heard swearing in further footage shown to the jury as he notices what the court has been told was Oakley’s ‘limp and lifeless’ body and barks: ‘Get an ambulance.’ The officer then lunges at Barnett to stop her attempting to take her own life with a noose she has rigged up in the loft. ‘I need a knife to cut her down!’ he shouts at colleagues below. Barnett – who allegedly told the authorities she had gone to Epping Forest to put them off her trail - appeared visibly distressed in court as she watched the footage on Friday, placing her head in her hands and staring at the floor. The police officers and a neighbour who happened to be a paediatric doctor fought to save Oakley by giving him CPR but he died in hospital several weeks later when his life support was switched off, the trial at Cambridge Crown Court has heard. Oakley, pictured shortly after his birth, died in hospital several weeks after he was found in a loft with his mother at her home, jurors have been told Opening the case against Barnett last week, 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 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, jurors have been 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 its father. An interim care order was also put in place in September that year, which included providing Barnett – who the prosecution say had expressed concern ‘she couldn’t look after [Oakley]’ - with support from 7pm to 7am every day, as well as throughout the day 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 feeling ill and she would have to attend via a videolink, Mr Paxton said. He 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 anti-depressant, while at the pharmacy, the prosecutor said, before 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 allegedly messaged a social worker at around 7pm, saying: ‘I’m going to the Forest.’ She added ‘gotta lose my phone now’, sparking the frantic search. Her car was located at 10pm and it wasn’t until around 11.30pm that officers from Essex Constabulary looking in her home again heard a ‘baby cry’ and realised the noise was coming from the loft, it is claimed. The ultimatum about being able to check on Oakley’s welfare was issued at 12.15am. ‘Just after the officer gave those two options… the defendant said, and I quote “I killed him”,’ Mr Paxton said. Oakley was found with ‘white fluid around his mouth and nose’. His 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. Giving evidence, Sgt Keith said the stand-off situation changed ‘instantly’ when the defendant claimed to have killed her son. During the chaotic struggle to get inside the loft, a specialist firearms officer, PC Mark Potter, was injured as a helium canister fell through the hatch, hitting him on the head, he said. Sgt Keith managed to scramble into the roof space where he said he was focused on getting Oakley out. ‘I physically picked him up and I could feel that he was limp and lifeless,’ he added. Oakley was passed down in his bassinet to other officers before Sgt Keith realised Barnett was trying to hang herself and yelled ‘She’s got a noose’ before taking her weight and asking for a knife to cut the rope. The defendant was handcuffed and Oakley was given CPR for around 15 minutes before paramedics arrived and took over, at which point a pulse was found again, the court heard. Other officers allegedly discovered a number of empty packets of paracetamol at that point that Barnett had taken in an overdose attempt. Barnett, who denies murder, 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 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 evidence of the prescription drugs was found in the two bottles seized from the loft and the syringe. She is also said to have 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 said this was because ‘she was to take Oakley’s life later and perhaps her own’. He added: ‘The prosecution’s case is that a close examination of the evidence will reveal the defendant’s claim of accident is a lie and that her actions at the time were deliberate and with a deadly purpose, intending to kill Oakley.’ Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.