The mother of three-year-old Mikaeel Kular has pleaded guilty to killing her son in Edinburgh in January.
Rosdeep Adekoya had been charged with murder, but admitted the reduced charge of culpable homicide when she appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Adekoya, 34, initially claimed Mikaeel disappeared from her Drylaw home.
Hundreds of people helped police search for him in the two days before his body was found 20 miles away in woodland in Fife.
Adekoya admitted repeatedly punching her son and causing his body to hit against a hard object or inflicting blunt injuries on his head and body between 12 and 15 January.
She also admitted wrapping Mikaeel’s body in a duvet cover, putting it in a suitcase and driving to Dunvegan Avenue in Kirkcaldy, Fife, where she hid the case under a bush in woods behind a house.
She had called 999 to report her son missing to police, telling officers he got out of bed and climbed on a stool to unlock the front door of his home.
She admitted causing a major search for her son, involving police, the fire service, coastguard, mountain rescue crews and members of the public.
Advocate depute Alex Prentice told the court: “The basis for the plea tendered being accepted is that the Crown accepts that the accused had no intention to kill Mikaeel and that the assault perpetrated upon him, although severe, fell short if the wicked recklessness required for murder.”
