A Russian woman living in London has admitted to killing her 10-year-old disabled son after struggling to cope with caring for him during Britain’s lockdown. Olga Freeman, the former wife of a celebrity photographer, had been caring for young Dylan after the special school he previously attended five days a week had closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The child’s autism, progressive myopia, and language and communication difficulties meant he needed ’round the clock care, and Freeman’s mental state just couldn’t handle it, The Times reports.
- Freeman had a mental breakdown prior to the murder. The 40-year-old was said to have been acting and speaking strangely in the week before the boy was killed, talking about being a Messiah, saving the world, and needing to travel to Jerusalem for some unknown reason.
- Dylan’s father Dean Freeman, 57, was away at the time. When Dylan died, his father was in Spain. However, he’d spoken to Olga just hours before his son died. During the conversation, they had an argument about caring for Dylan. However, Dan could never have imagined what was to come.
- Olga’s friend was the one who discovered Dylan. Edita Surpickaja had been helping to care for Dylan 12 hours a week but admitted that Olga had been struggling with mental health issues which were compounded by her inability to properly care for her son. Surpickaja received a text from Freeman the night before Dylan’s death which said “I am done. Where are u?” When she visited the home the next day, she discovered that Freeman had booked two seats on a flight to Tel Aviv. Instructing her not to go into the bedroom, Freeman simply said, “We need to go to Jerusalem. I did what I did. Sometimes when things are good it can be really evil.”
- Freeman admitted everything. The two women went to the police together, where Freeman told police that she attempted to “kill [Dylan] softly” by giving him an overdose of insomnia treatment. However, after that didn’t work, she used her hands and her bra to strangle the child before putting a sponge in his mouth and covering him with toys in his room. She later appeared at the Old Bailey via video link from a psychiatric unit where she pleaded guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.
- It’s likely she’ll be sentenced to a long-term psychiatric unit. The court accepted the manslaughter plea due to Freeman’s mental state and has postponed her next hearing until February 11.
