A Black Country mother took her young son’s life to “spite” his father then killed herself, a coroner has ruled.

Emma Hart, 27, gave fatal amounts of prescription drugs to five-year-old Lewis Dangerfield, the inquest at Sandwell heard.

She later slashed her own wrist, leaving a note in which she told Lewis’s father: “Enjoy your life now, nothing is stopping you, ha ha ha.”

The bodies were found at separate addresses in Tipton on Sunday December 9 last year, the inquest at the Council House in Smethwick heard.

Ms Hart was found at her mother’s flat in Henley Close, before Lewis was discovered at the nearby home in Walker Street that he shared with his mother.

Black Country Coroner Robin Balmain heard that Lewis died of poisoning, with high levels of a painkiller, Tramadol, discovered in his blood and urine.

The same painkiller was among the drugs - including morphine - found in his mother’s body, some at levels that could kill, though the coroner heard it was likely she died because of the blood loss from her wrist.

Lewis’s father, Shaun Dangerfield, who had split from Ms Hart and had a new partner, said the last text he received from her in the days before the deaths read: “I know what to do now for the best” and was signed with a kiss.

The 27-year-old said that at the time he thought it was an “amicable” response to a disagreement they had had over Lewis’s custody arrangements.

But the inquest heard that in a note left by Ms Hart, she told him: “Did you really think I was going to die and allow you to bring Lewis up and play happy families? You made your choice and now you can live with it.”

She wrote that Mr Dangerfield could “hurt for the rest of your life” as he had put her through “hell”, telling him she he hated him “enough to take my son with me”.

She told him: “Just remember, it’s all your fault.”

It was on the Sunday that Ms Hart’s mother discovered her in bed and covered in blood at the Henley Close flat, where she had spent the day and the previous night, complaining she was feeling ill.

Her family believed that Lewis was spending the weekend with his father until a note was discovered by the body, in which Emma Hart told them she was “sorry to have taken Lewis and me away from you”.

It was only then that police officers rushing to her home - which she is thought to have left at midday on Saturday and not returned to - discovered Lewis’s dead body.

In the weeks before her death Ms Hart, a cleaner, told friends and family that she was suffering from cancer, but a post-mortem examination showed there was no evidence of this in her body.

Her GP confirmed to the inquest that they had never discussed anything to do with cancer, though Ms Hart had complained of stress and anxiety. As relatives wept in the courtroom, the coroner said it was “simply spite” that motivated Ms Hart’s actions.

Mr Balmain said: “She was prepared to kill her son to spite Mr Dangerfield. I cannot imagine anything so evil as a mother who would be prepared to do that.”

The case was “possibly the most distressing” he had ever dealt with in his 25 years as a coroner.

Recording his verdict, he described how Emma Hart “needed to be in control” and could be driven by “rage and hatred if she did not get her own way”.

She was prepared to lie about her medical condition to Mr Dangerfield - as well as friends and her own family - “to get control” over her former partner, the coroner said.

Mr Dangerfield had himself told the inquest that his doubts were raised as to Ms Hart’s cancer when she told him “he should stop seeing his current girlfriend and go back to her” because of her illness.

Referring to the “severely critical” note that Ms Hart left for Mr Dangerfield, the coroner said that there was absolutely no evidence to support her words.

“It seems to me that he had done everything he possibly could to fulfil his obligations towards his little boy,” he said.

The coroner recorded that Ms Hart had killed herself, with haemorrhaging as the cause of death, while the poisoning of Lewis was recorded as an unlawful killing.

Mr Dangerfield, who attended the inquest, said in a statement read afterwards by a police officer that he had lost the “largest part” of his life.

He said: “Being told here today the exact reasons as to how Lewis was murdered won’t bring him back, but does bring it to an end. Take five minutes to sit back and appreciate what you have and imagine what it would be like to have all that taken away from you.”

Members of Ms Hart’s family, who told the inquest she “idolised” Lewis, also attended.