Daniel Hodgson Green murder: Mum sentenced to life in prison for killing two-year-old son

• Report by Kris Jepson

A woman has been sentenced to life in prison after murdering her two-year-old son with a plastic bag.

Carol Hodgson, 40, appeared at Teesside Crown Court on Friday morning after pleading guilty to killing Daniel Hodgson Green at a previous hearing.

She was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 18 years and four months.

The court heard that emergency services were called to Upper Garth Gardens in Guisborough on Wednesday 2 February following concerns for the welfare of a child. 

Suffocation and attempted suicide

When crews arrived, they found Daniel's lifeless body. Paramedics tried to revive the two-year-old but he was already dead.

Hodgson was found in the same room with a large wound to her neck and surrounded by blood with her mother, Daniel's grandmother, performing chest compressions on her daughter.

A clear plastic vacuum storage bag, which was used as the murder weapon, was found in the bedroom.

Before suffocating Daniel and attempting suicide, Hodgson left a letter for her mother urging her to not go in the room.

"Just ring the police Mam, don’t go into the bedroom, you don’t need to see it," it read. "I love you and I am sorry."

Other notes were found in the house, some claiming that the only way to "protect" Daniel was to "take him with you". 

'My entire world'

Judge Paul Watson QC told the court that on the day Hodgson committed the "horrifying and truly awful crime" she was due in court for proceedings after Daniel's father had made an application to increase his contact with the boy.

In his statement, Daniel's father told the court: "He was my entire world. The day he was born I truly knew what love was.

"As a baby he was wonderful […] he loved to play ‘peek-a-boo’. He loved his cuddles with us all.

"I now suffer with PTSD. I barely sleep. I feel like my life has lost all meaning, and struggle to find a way forward.

"I feel hopeless for the future, having to go on knowing I will never see my little boy ever again."

Daniel was examined by a forensic pathologist who found his death was consistent with asphyxia caused by the plastic bag Hodgson used to kill him.

Hodgson denied killing her son whilst being interviewed under police caution. She said she remembered taking tablets and wanting to kill herself but she did not want to harm her son. She claimed she could not remember anything after taking the tablets and planned only to kill herself. Hodgson later pleaded guilty to the murder of her son. 

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