Dylan Scanlon

On New Year’s Eve 2021, five-year-old Dylan Scanlon was found dead in his home in Oldham.

What followed was a criminal trial that revealed harrowing details: a child poisoned with his mother’s antidepressants, repeatedly assaulted, and killed by the one person meant to protect him. Dylan’s mother was later convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

But Dylan’s death was not only a criminal case. It also exposed a much wider story—of a family breaking apart, a mother’s deteriorating mental health, a father fighting to stay connected to his son, and repeated points of contact with professionals that, in hindsight, did not come together to keep Dylan safe.

In this episode of Manchester Murders, we tell Dylan’s story in full. Who he was. What was happening in his life before he died. What the court heard about the final hours of his life, and the devastating impact on those left behind.

We also examine the subsequent safeguarding review carried out by Oldham Council, which scrutinised the actions of multiple agencies and identified serious shortcomings in information-sharing, recording, and professional curiosity—failures measured against national safeguarding standards in place at the time.

This episode is based entirely on verified reporting, court proceedings, police statements, and the published Child Safeguarding Practice Review.

Content warning: this episode contains discussion of child abuse and the death of a child. Listener discretion is advised.

I don’t have much to say on this one, to be honest. As a mum, it just makes me sad.

As a divorced mum, and the one who doesn’t live full time with my child, it makes me grateful that her dad and I have remained on such good terms.

And it makes me angry that people were raising the alarm multiple times, starting when this little boy was 13 months old and found crawling down the street on this own, and the “system” failed him.