The brother of a missing teenager Leah Croucher killed himself after telling a therapist he was finding it difficult to cope and was fixated on hanging.
Haydon Croucher, 24, was found hanging in his flat in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, nine months after Leah disappeared, by his mother Tracey Furness and sister Jade.
He was rushed to hospital where he died, two days later on November 16, last year, Milton Keynes coroner’s court heard on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.
Chantelle Tillison, who was an assistant therapist, said at the last of three sessions with Hayden, on October 16, last year, he saw no future for himself.
Ms Tillison said: “He felt hopeless and said he would be better off dead. He explained Leah was still missing and found it difficult to cope with no family support. He fixated on hanging himself. He said if he had the means to hang himself he would.”
She said she was so concerned she persuaded him to go in her car to Milton Keynes hospital for an assessment for admission. “It was evident he was unwell,” she said.
The inquest heard he was not admitted after saying he did not want to go to a psychiatric bed out of the area, as there were none available locally.
Dr Jibran Syeed, who was with the home treatment team, said he visited Hayden at home on October 18, 2019. He said: “He (Haydon) had been quite a confident person and outgoing. He mentioned boxing and taekwondo. It was reflected by the medals in his home. Now he had no confidence, no motivation for the future and had thoughts of suicide in the past.”
At their second meeting, on November 8, 2019, the doctor said he was more positive and was engaging with his family. “He was getting on with certain chores and was trying to find a job. He was active in ideas about what he wanted to do. His suicide risk was lower.”
The doctor stopped his Resperidone, an antipsychotic drug, which is used to affect mood disorder. The doctor said Haydon had been on the drug since 2014, but there had been times when he had not been taking it. He said he made the assessment that he should stop taking it because it was a low dose and he was not “expressing psychosis.”
The doctor agreed that he did not envisage Haydon being discharged from the home treatment team four days later.
Colin Garvey, a community psychiatric nurse with the Central and North West London NHS Trust, said that when Haydon seen at Milton Keynes hospital on October 16, 2019, there were no beds available locally. He said a plan was agreed for him to stay temporarily at his mother’s home.
Tom Osborne, the Senior Coroner for Milton Keynes, asked Mr Garvey: “If you had formed the only way to keep him safe was for him to be admitted you could have exercised your powers under the mental health act?” Mr Garvey replied: “Yes.”
Mr Garvey said that he did not remember any member of staff objecting to Haydon being discharged from the mental health team and returned to the care of his GP on November 12.
He agreed the decision to discharge Haydon had not been documented. “It was not documented. That is a fair criticism. We have introduced a system now where decisions are documented.”
Haydon’s death came nione months after his half-sister Leah, 19, vanished on February 15, last year.
The night before, Valentine’s night, Leah left her home in Milton Keynes between 6pm and 7.15pm, telling her mum Claire she was seeing a friend. The police found out she never saw the friend and they do not know where she went or who she was with.
She had been seeing a man who was engaged to somebody else.
In May Haydon appeared at Aylesbury crown court accused of threatening the man.
The prosecution dropped the case and he was given a restraining order by Judge Francis Sheridan. The judge told Haydon told him: “This is a real tragedy.
“You and your family are entitled to and deserve our utter sympathy.
Despite large scale searches and public appeals. There has been no sighting of Leah.
In August, with Leah missing for 18 months, her parents John and Claire issued a new appeal for help to find her. It marked her 21st birthday.
She was last seen in Buzzacott Lane in Furzton, Milton Keynes just after 8.15am, having left the family home in Quantock Crescent, Emerson Valley in the city.
Her mobile phone and bank account have not been used since.
Three witnesses reported that a female, who could possibly have been Leah, was seen by Furzton Lake between 9.30am and 11.15 am. She was said to be “angry, upset and crying.”
Despite a search of the lake, a £10,000 reward and widespread appeals from her family nothing has been found.
They said: “August 14 is Leah’s 21st birthday. It should be a time of anticipation that our daughter is coming of age. We should be out buying a matching champagne glass to her 18th or a plastic key to proclaim that she is 21 and a ‘proper’ adult now.
“We should be buying her an expensive piece of jewellery for her to pass onto her first born. Maybe I would present her with the diamond ring my mother inherited from my grandmother. The only true family heirloom I possess.
“We should be planning a surprise birthday party as we did for Hayden’s 21st birthday. Hiding phone calls, text messages and emails, planning what food to have, agonising over the cake design.
“We should be wishing COVID-19 was closer to being resolved as it is interfering with the holiday we wanted to take Leah on, a two week trip to Costa Rica. We should be looking at photos of the holiday we never had last March to Cape Verde.
“Instead we are waiting for August 15. The 18-month anniversary of Leah vanishing from the face of the earth. We are missing Leah so much it is crippling. We miss Haydon just as much. Regretful that neither will be here the day before Leah’s birthday. Or that day. Or the day after.
“The past 18 months have been a living hell, a waking nightmare that does not stop. It is sometimes difficult to work out if we are asleep or awake as the two merge and at times one is just as bad, if not worse as the other. The hardest to cope with are the dreams where I am hugging you Leah, because I’ve found you, or you have come home, or the police have found you, a member of the public found you… so many differing scenarios, all untrue and seemingly impossible.“
Senior investigating officer, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Howard, of the Major Crime Unit, said: “On the morning of Friday, February 15, 2019, Leah left her home address in Quantock Crescent. We know that at 8.07am, she was spotted on a CCTV camera in Leigh Hill, just a matter of metres away from Quantock Crescent.
“At 8.16am, Leah was seen again on CCTV in Buzzacott Lane, approximately a ten minute walk from her home address. She was heading in the direction of Dulverton Drive, towards Tellytubbie Hill.
“However since that sighting on CCTV, there have been no further confirmed sightings of Leah at all.
“Leah walked to work in Knowlhill most mornings, and it is believed that she was on her way to work as usual at this time. Leah would often take different variations of her walking route; we know that on Wednesday 13 and Thursday, February 14, Leah crossed from Furzton into Shenley Lodge and walked up Faraday Drive towards Knowlhill; but we also know that she would sometimes walk the routes that took her directly around part of Furzton Lake.
“Leah’s workplace is in Davy Avenue, which means that Leah’s walk to work is approximately two miles long. It is a busy route through largely residential areas, and therefore I believe that at such a busy time in the morning it’s highly likely that other members of the public will have walked, cycled, or driven past her. Somebody must have seen Leah after she passed the CCTV camera on Buzzacott Lane.
“I would like to reach out and appeal to the residents and commuters in this area, particularly Buzzacott Lane, Dulverton Drive, Loxbeare Avenue and the roads close to Furzton Lake, as well as Faraday Drive and the roads surrounding it. Were you travelling along the H7 Chaffron Way that morning?
“We know these locations were such a feature of Leah’s weekday routine. She would have been walking along these roads and streets, between Emerson Valley, through Furzton and Shenley Lodge and into Knowlhill habitually between 8am and 9am each weekday morning.
“I find it very hard to believe that nobody saw Leah on the morning of February 15. If you are a resident of these areas, or were at the time of Leah’s disappearance, or if you are somebody that regularly uses that area to commute or for exercise please cast your mind back to that day and particularly that morning.
“It was the day after Valentine’s Day and the last day before the schools finished for half-term. Did you see a girl matching Leah’s description or did you see or hear anything that caught your attention that you may previously have thought was insignificant? If so, and you haven’t yet spoken to the police we need to hear from you.
“On the morning of February 15, Leah was dressed in a black coat, skinny black jeans, black Converse high top trainers and she was carrying a small black rucksack. In particular, she was wearing a grey Stewartby Taekwondo hooded top, with a colourful logo. This is a distinctive top, and I hope that it is one that someone would remember seeing.
“She has shoulder length brown hair and sometimes wears glasses.
“We are again appealing to the public, on this landmark date in Leah and her family’s life, for anyone who may know anything at all, to come forward and speak to police.
“We are taking this opportunity to re-issue some images of clothing and personal belongings that Leah was known to have had with her on February 15 in the hope that it prompts somebody’s memory.
“The smallest piece of information could be absolutely key in helping us to move on with this investigation, and open new lines of enquiry for our officers to explore.
“A £10,000 reward, offered by two local donors, is still available to anyone who has information that directly leads to us finding Leah.
“Leah’s disappearance has had a devastating effect on her family and it is difficult to comprehend the distress and anguish that they have had to deal with over the last 18 months and will continue to endure until Leah is found. This week she should be celebrating her 21st birthday surrounded by her family and friends.
“If anybody has any information that may assist us in finding Leah please do the right thing and contact us. Please consider the impact on Leah’s family of them not knowing what has happened to her and help us to give them the answers they are so desperately seeking.
“Leah, if you are able to see or hear this appeal, please contact us. We just want to know that you are ok and to be able to support you. You are not in any trouble and anything you wish to tell us will be treated in confidence and with sensitivity. Many, many people are wishing for your safe return.”
In a statement read to the coroner Haydon’s mother Tracey Furness said: “My son had a heart of gold. He did suffer with ill mental health and felt all emotions at their extreme.”
She went on: “He needed help. He was begging for help. Hayden felt uncared for.
“My only hope is that lessons have been learned.
“I do not consider enough time was given to Hayden to ensure recovery. At the time he was suffering with severe clinical depression and anxiety.
“He had a complex history of ill medical health and there had been two previous attempts at taking his life.”
She said when he was discharged the trust was aware that it was the nine month anniversary of Leah’s disappearance and that his grandmother had died.
Dr Stephanie Oldroyd, of the Central and North West London NHS Trust, said the trust accepted a serious incident report that pointed out that its crisis and home treatment team showed “poor identification of risk”.
She agreed there was no crisis management plan and that discharge planning had not been adequate.
Dr Oldroyd changes had been made, including increased supervision of staff, with improved care plans and risk assessment involving families.
Hayden Croucher’s dad John asked: “Who discharged my son? Why has its not been presented today?”
Milton Keynes Senior Coroner Tom Osborne recorded a verdict of suicide.
He said he was impressed by the evidence of Chantelle Tillison, who took him to hospital.
Referring to his treatment the coroner said: “I am not satisfied an inpatient bed was discussed.
“It was a fundamental decision with regard to his future. It needed to be recorded. It is the case of the old adage if it is not recorded it did not happen. I do not believe it was considered. “
“There needed to be a clear plan in his case. There was no clear plan.
The coroner said he did not think there was a discussion about Haydon’s discharge from the acute team in November. “There was no discharge plan in place and that has contributed to Hayden’s death.”
He said he accepted the failing found in the serious incident report that there was no evidence a person-centred care plan was in place.”
“We had a young man in crisis his parents needed to know the plan going forward.
“The discharge was not adequately risk assessed. The family were unaware.”
Inquest proceeding.
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