Troubled teen was found hanging after being thrown out of classroom A MUM’S TORMENT

“I WAS on my way home when the police phoned. They said they needed to speak to me.” Kristina Wray knew her son was having difficulties. His behaviour had become increasingly erratic.

Derek Brundrett was “a good little boy”, she said, but something changed in him when he was 12 years old. His behaviour deteriorated to the point where his mother could no longer cope with his loud and, at times, violent outbursts.

Kristina, exhausted by her efforts to control her son, had him put into foster care. Referrals were made for mental health treatment due to concerns for his welfare.

“When he turned 12 he totally changed,” says Kristina. “He became aggressive and I just couldn’t handle him. In 2011 I phoned social services because I didn’t know where else to go.”

Derek went into care and started to attend the Pembrokeshire Referral Unit in Neyland, a learning centre designed for young people with more complex needs.

Kristina hoped he would get the care he needed, but his behaviour continued to alarm, and one day he climbed onto the roof of the building at the referral unit.

“He wasn’t happy,” says Kristina. “He said his time in care was like a prison sentence and he wanted to come home to live with me and finally he did in September 2013. I knew he wasn’t better but he wanted to be at home, but I was very concerned for his mental health. alth. The sad thing is he was so sorry rry for the way he was behaving. He e would tell me he was sorry for the e way he was, and how he couldn’t uldn’t control it.

“But he wanted to go back to Pembroke School, so it was as agreed he would go back ck a year. But, within a month onth I was called in because cause of his behaviour and d he was warned he could uld be sent back to the referral ferral unit.”

It was around this time that at an incident at home led to Derek being put back into care. re. He had argued with one of his brothers and Kristina a had tried to separate ate them.

“I tried to get in between them on the stairs and I ended up being arrested,” she says.

In December 2013, Derek was back in care and his mother was becoming increasingly worried. On the evening of December 11, he phoned his mother.

“He was deeply unhappy. I didn’t sleep a wink that night. I could just feel that something was very wrong,” she says.

“His social worker told me that Derek was fine but I tried to say that he wasn’t – he was in a really bad way and was really unhappy.

“Later that morning, I had a conversation with a teacher at the school and it was agreed someone would keep an eye on him until his foster carers picked him up at 3.30pm.”

That phone call took place at 11.15am on December 12. Kristina hoped everything would be OK, and Derek would be collected as normal. That never happened.

Derek was found hanging from a tree by a friend a few yards from the school’s reception.

A short time earlier, he had been thrown out of a science class due to his behaviour. He had refused to remove a hoodie he was wearing and was told to leave the classroom.

At around 1.30pm, a friend of Derek’s went to look for him. Derek was facing the other way, and at first the friend thought it was a joke. When he realised it wasn’t, he ran to get help.

They got him down, and that’s when the realisation hit them tha t their f riend

was dead. He had taken his own life at the age of 14.

Kristina was on her way home when the police phoned: “When they came round, I asked them in. Then they told me he had died. I could not believe it.

“I went upstairs because I just wanted to be on my own for a moment. I actually prayed – for the first time in my whole life I prayed that I would have the strength to carry on. Not for me, but for my other two boys.

“I’ve never had a feeling like it; it was like someone had ripped my heart out. I remember thinking I was going to die right there and then from a broken heart.”

The anguish that took over Kristina was soon joined by another emotion – anger.

“I was straight on the phone to social services to ask ‘ What have you done to my son? You’ve let him down.’”

Next month will mark the fifth anniversary of Derek’s death and Kristina is still waiting for answers. An inquest into his death has still not concluded. It is hoped an outcome will be revealed at a hearing in the new year.

At a previous inquest hearing, the head of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services at Hywel Dda Health Board said the system had been inadequate but improvements had been made.

Derek had threatened suicide before, had climbed onto the roof of a building, and cut himself.

A child psychiatrist told the inquest inquest: “I find it difficult to understand h how any referral that contains any an mention of self-harm was not flagged flag as urgent.

“Ther “There are very real indications that a psychiatric assessment should have been taken.”

Kristi Kristina has started a petition calling for an Article 2 inquest – an enhanc enhanced inquest where the state or ‘its a agents’ have ‘failed to protect the de deceased against a human threat o or other risk’.

What Kristina really wants, after all this time, is answers, and for someon someone to say that something more could co have been done.

Throu Throughout Derek’s period of erratic behaviour, he was never diagn diagnosed with any condition,

des despite visits to the GP.

In total, he had seven different social ocial workers, and Kristina ristina says the school ol should have done e more on that day to o look after him.

She was given assurances that at somebody was going to keep an eye on him, in n light of her growing concerns ncerns for his welfare.

His body y was found a stone’s throw ow away from his class mates and members of staff. ff.

“It’s five years later and nobody has been held accountable e for my son’s death,” says s Kristina.

“So, this could happen again to somebody else who’s going ng through the same thing. .

“He needed eded help and there are other ther people who need help.

“I just want ant someone to say they’re sorry. I’m convinced that t Derek did what he did for r attention; I’m convinced that he didn’t mean to kill ill himself. The branch of the tree wasn’t that high off ff the ground, to me that says ys he wanted to be found alive. ive.

“He thought ought he was going to be found by someone who would then realise what at he was going through at that time.

“He had cut himself the day before. e. He thought someone would find him in time, but ut they didn’t. He was crying ing for help.”

A spokesman man for Pembrokeshire council said: “The death of a child is a matter of great concern and sadness, ss, no matter what the circumstances ircumstances in which it occurred.

“The coroner’s inquest into nto Derek Brundrett’s death is still ongoing ng and we are awaiting ng the outcome.

“It is therefore erefore inappropriate to comment further.”