Moment escaped psychiatric patient is caught by police after beating church warden to death with golf umbrella
David Parish, 38, ran away from a mental health hospital in Taunton, Somerset after a door was left open and brutally attacked 'beloved' churchwarden Beryl Purdy, 86, with a makeshift weapon.
Before the attack, he locked Mrs Purdy's husband, Peter, in the kitchen of their home in the village of Broomfield, Somerset.
Mrs Purdy, known as 'Bez', tried to defend herself from the large golf umbrella he had taken from her garden but tragically suffered fatal head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene on March 27, 2023.
Parish was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia caused by smoking cannabis and had been detained temporarily under the Mental Health Act at the Rydon Ward in Taunton.
At Bristol Crown Court on Friday (May 23), Parish was jailed for six years, after previously pleading guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
And now, Avon and Somerset Police have released body-worn camera footage of the moment the killer was caught.
In the video, officers stop Parish on a dark country road and ask what he is doing in the area.
Parish gives his name as 'James' and claims he works at a nearby farm.
An officer then handcuffs Parish - telling him it's 'a bit strange [he's] up in the hills' given a recent incident in the area.
He then detains Parish, who does not resist, and searches him.
During Parish's sentencing at Bristol Crown Court, Honorable Mr Justice Saini told him: 'You killed Beryl Purdy, having attacked her in her own home with a large golfing umbrella.
'She was not known to you, and at the time you killed her, you had been able to walk out of a secure hospital unit where you had been detained under section 2 of the Mental Health Act 1983.
'I have had read to me the moving victim impact statements from Mrs Purdy's husband of 63 years, Peter.
'He has suffered the loss of his lifetime partner and best friend, known to him and her friends as Bez.
'He is reminded of the incident every time he goes into the room where she was found. This leaves him with anger and sadness and more recently, loneliness, to contend with every day.
'His loss is unimaginable.
'Nick, their son, describes how distressing it was to lose his mother because a door was left unlocked - and a man who should have been detained was able to enter his parents' home and kill his mother in such a violent manner..'
The court heard how Parish - who at the time was residing in a psychiatric unit at Wellsprings Hospital in Taunton - had absconded from the ward and made his way to the nearby village of Broomfield.
After leaving the unit, Parish went to a nearby barber and had his hair cut short and his beard shaved off.
Prosecutor Anna Vigars KC told the court how Parish then tried to pull a man from a car as he drove away from the car park in Fyne Court, a National Trust property in Somerset, but had been unsuccessful.
A short time later, Parish gained access to a home nearby. It was then that he brutally killed Mrs Purdy.
According to prosecutor Vigars, when Mrs Purdy was found, her head was 'covered in blood to the extent that it was difficult to see what her actual injuries were.'
Following Parish's sentencing, Mrs Purdy's family described her as a 'beloved wife, mother, and granny' - said they were 'serving a life sentence of torment' knowing they were 'unable to save' her.
They said in a statement: 'We would like to thank the police for their meticulous work in proving who was responsible for the brutal and fatal attack on our beloved wife, mother, and granny, Bez Purdy.'
Mrs Purdy's family then criticised the jail term, calling for tougher protections for the public.
'We are serving a life sentence of torment knowing that we were unable to save Bez from her attacker and the outcome of sentencing today also means that her attacker avoids a life sentence.
'We would not wish our hell on any other family and urge for a review of how the community can be protected from people with severe mental health issues.'
Meanwhile, in a statement released at the time of Mrs Purdy's death, they said: 'As a family, we are devastated to have lost a dearly loved wife, mother, and granny.
'Bez was a caring person who would help anyone in need and was very much part of the village, being a church warden for 20 years.
'We will miss her very much and we are all struggling to understand why this happened to such a lovely person.'
The father-of-two's mental health had deteriorated following the breakdown of his marriage in 2021.
The court heard that Parish believed he was receiving messages from birds and that he was under threat from people outside his home.
Ms Vigars told the court that after leaving the unit, Parish travelled to the vicinity of Mrs Purdy's home.
Her body was discovered behind the freezer by a neighbour after her husband raised the alarm he had been trapped in the kitchen by Parish.
'He then noticed two feet with black shoes on sticking out from behind the displaced fridge freezer,' Mrs Vigars said.
'He went to investigate and found that the feet belonged to the body of Mrs Purdy, which was crumpled against the wall with a washing basket on top of her.
'Mrs Purdy's head was covered in blood to the extent that it was difficult to see what her actual injuries were.'
The day before the attack, Parish was assessed under the Mental Health Act and detained at the Rydon Ward in Taunton.
'It was there that his parents went to visit him on Monday March 27,' Mrs Vigars said.
'Mr Parish seemed to them to be calmer. After a little time of family chat, Mr Parish said he wanted to use the toilet and he left his parents.
'He didn't return to his parents and they raised the alarm with staff at reception.
'Staff apologised, telling the family that the front door to the unit should have been locked, that the police had been alerted to the disappearance and that Mr Parish had been reported as a missing person.'
The court heard an investigation is underway into the circumstances of how Parish was able to leave the unit.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
Thornaby manslaughter suspect released on bail
A woman arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after a second woman was found dead has been released on bail, police were called to a house on Cornfield Road in Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, at about 16:45 BST on Friday following the death of a 53-year-old Police said a 25-year-old woman who was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter has been bailed pending further with any information is asked to contact the force. Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
The Sun
6 hours ago
- The Sun
My kind uncle was murdered by cannabis-crazed mum… as experts warn Class B drug is fuelling wave of psychotic killers
WHEN pensioner Roger Leadbeater was brutally murdered in cold blood while out walking his dog in a Sheffield park, his distraught family were completely at a loss. "As a family, we can barely believe such a kind, gentle soul could be taken in such a way,' they said in a statement, highlighting how the 74-year-old's faithful springer spaniel refused to leave his side while he lay dying that fateful evening in August 2023. 17 17 17 It later emerged the woman charged with killing him, then 32-year-old schizophrenic Emma Borowy, was a habitual cannabis user who, when not being treated in a mental health hospital, would sacrifice feeding herself to pay for the drug. Mother-of-one Borowy, who died in a suspected suicide in prison in December 2023, had absconded from Royal Bolton Hospital eight times since she was sectioned in October 2022, and each time she escaped she would buy weed and display increasingly concerning psychotic behaviour. 'As far as I could see she was never reprimanded at all for having cannabis despite having it every time she left and even having it on hospital grounds,' Roger's grieving niece, Angela Hector, 56, told The Sun. 'I am now so scared of what cannabis can do. This has had a massive impact on us as a family. We have lost somebody really important to us.' In May this year, London Mayor Sadiq Khan backed a call for the partial decriminalisation of possession of the Class B drug in a recent report by the London Drugs Commission. It suggested doing so could free up law enforcement and court resources, as individuals caught with small amounts might face warnings, fines or community service, and eventually pave the way towards a regulated cannabis market. But the suggestion set alarm bells ringing for Roger's family - and the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset, David Sidwick. He wrote a letter to police minister Dame Diana Johnson which was signed by 13 other PCCs, claiming the effect of the drug in society may, in actual fact, be 'far worse' than heroin, and it should be upgraded to Class A - a belief shared by the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman. Mr Sidwick said: 'It is a chronically dangerous drug that we haven't gripped. The whole world has been subjected to a PR campaign in the other direction. 'I worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 30 years and this drug has long-term chronic side effects. 'It is associated with more birth defects than thalidomide and is linked to more than 20 cancers. Not to mention the issues with psychosis and drug driving.' Mr Sidwick's concerns are echoed by the findings of a Sun probe which reveals cannabis is behind a mental health epidemic that has seen a third of people presenting with psychosis in London developing it from heavy use of high strength weed. The THC levels - the mind-altering element in weed - nowadays is almost seven times stronger than it was 35 years ago, shooting up from three per cent to 15-20 per cent in potent modern-day cultivated cannabis. The increase has a frightening effect on the addictiveness of the substance, making users, particularly teenagers with developing brains, vulnerable to mental health issues with prolonged heavy use, which can progress to violent disorders - sometimes with deadly consequences. 'Epidemic' 17 17 Psychiatrist professor Sir Robin Murray, who specialises in psychosis at King's College, London, told The Sun: 'To the parents in their 40s and 50s who see their children smoking cannabis, they need to be aware that it is a very different substance to what it was years ago. 'The result is that it's far more addictive. We're seeing smokers having up to 20 joints a day. 'We are at the beginnings of an epidemic of cannabis-induced psychosis. 'About a third of the people in London who present with psychosis have developed it from heavy use of high potency cannabis. 'The mental health service is a right mess. One of the reasons for that is that we've got more people who are psychotic than we're expected to have. 'Half of those people with cannabis induced psychosis will develop schizophrenia in five years. 'But it is not schizophrenia that makes you violent, it's cannabis that makes you violent. 'Cannabis makes you paranoid, so if you're hearing voices from God commanding you to do something, then you're seeing violence in a bizarre and horrifying murder that is not like plotting to kill your wife in six weeks time, but a sudden psychotic episode where you kill whoever you come across.' The effects of this were seen on June 27, when Marcus Arduini-Monzo, 37, was jailed for life after he murdered 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin with a samurai sword as he walked to school in a 20-minute rampage in East London. The appalling attack was blamed on Arduini-Monzo's cannabis misuse. Links to violence 17 17 17 Cannabis is currently a Class B drug, along with ketamine and amphetamines. It was returned to Class B after being downgraded to Class C by Labour between 2004 and 2009. English teacher Ross Grainger runs a blog cataloguing cannabis-related violent crimes called Attacker Smoked Cannabis, and has written a book of the same name - inspired by the phrase he uses when searching for incidents. He told The Sun: 'I started this in 2017 when I was worried we could be going in the direction of decriminalisation and I realised there was a problem. 'I'd say there has been a steady violent episode every two weeks for the past 30 years - and what I log is the tip of the iceberg. 'I log murders, suicides, rapes, drug driving and terrorism. 'I was struck by how it is considered a peaceful drug that couldn't in any way lead to violence, yet the evidence I read as I began researching showed how strongly that is not the case, and how strongly it is linked to terrible violence. I'd say there has been a steady violent episode every two weeks for the past 30 years - and what I log is the tip of the iceberg... For me, there is no drug worse than cannabis Ross Grainger 'I see the same pattern emerging where a young person has cannabis from a young age, loses their mind and commits a terrible act of ultraviolence. 'You'd be forgiven for thinking it is legal in this country. Really it is decriminalised in all but name. 'For me, there is no drug worse than cannabis. Other drugs have horrendous side-effects, but what can be worse than actually losing your mind? 'It seems crazy to me that a Government can be so anti-smoking, and do so well in enforcing a ban, but then be so lax at enforcing cannabis legislation.' 'Cannabis took my son' 17 17 17 Heartbroken mum, Julie Romani, 60, from Bradford, West Yorks., knows only too well the harmful effects cannabis addiction can have after her son Jordan took his own life in September 2017, aged 27. He'd started smoking cannabis as a young teenager and couldn't function without it. The widowed property developer and mum-of-two, whose husband died aged 61 in 2011, when Jordan was 21, said: 'My husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer when Jordan was 14, so I think that's when he started to develop a habit. 'We didn't know what was going on. We put mood swings down to him being a teenager, but the emotional instability, nastiness and anger continued and got worse over the years. 'He was depressed and ended up where he couldn't get a grip on reality. He used to say the only thing that made him happy was his 'Happy Baccy'. 'He tried so hard to quit and had even stopped smoking it for three months before he died, but he couldn't cope with it and couldn't cope without it. 'Jordan had everything to live for but the cannabis took him.' After Jordan's death Julie set up a charity, Help For Dependency, and now raises awareness of the dangers of cannabis to mental health. 'Chicken and egg' situation 17 17 Investigative journalist Julian Hendy founded the charity Hundred Families after his father Philip, 75, was killed by mentally ill Stephen Newton in a drug-induced psychosis in 2007. Newton lay in wait for Philip to emerge from buying a newspaper before fatally stabbing him in the street in Bristol. Julian's charity has now backed over 300 families who have lost loved ones at the hands of mentally ill patients, many of whom were under the influence of cannabis. He said: 'Cannabis and serious mental health problems are very common to go together. Around 70 per cent of those with serious mental illness also abuse drugs. 'It is sometimes difficult to know which caused the other in a chicken and egg situation. 'There's a lot that needs to be done in treating mental illness and stopping patients from being involved in drugs that can cause schizophrenia and make mental illness worse. 'In the case of my dad, the services knew this chap took drugs and they didn't do anything to stop him taking these drugs. Jordan tried so hard to quit and had even stopped smoking it for three months before he died, but he couldn't cope with it and couldn't cope without it. Jordan had everything to live for but the cannabis took him Julie Romani 'The death of my dad was very preventable. They should have done better to save my dad, they didn't do so, and I see that in lots of cases. 'My father's killer got a murder conviction, which you don't always get. It was found that he had made the dangerous choice of taking drugs that caused him to become psychotic and murder and therefore he was held responsible and jailed for 16 years in October 2008. 'Yet in the case of Valdo Calocane, who committed the Nottingham murders of 19-year-old university students Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, he was not tested for drugs, and was convicted on the grounds of diminished responsibility. 'Then you get shorter sentences in hospital which doesn't feel like justice for the families. 'He should have been tested for drugs at the time of his arrest and he wasn't. 'Right now people who present with problems due to cannabis will not be helped because cannabis is the cause, unless they have psychosis, and only then they sometimes get the help. 'Mental health services seem to be aware this is a common problem but they don't actually take enough effective steps to try to stop people becoming psychotic.' 17 17 Crazed cannabis killers JAKE NOTMAN Jake Notman, 28, was jailed for eight years and eight months after admitting to killing his girlfriend, Lauren Bloomer, during a psychotic episode triggered by a cannabis brownie. In November 2020, Notman stabbed Bloomer more than 30 times and ran her over outside their Tamworth home. Bloomer, 25, had begun recording on her phone after seeking help online for Notman's bad reaction to the drug. The audio recorded her screams and Notman's chilling words before the sound of a revving engine and a thud. Neighbours saw him run over her and return indoors without offering help. Notman later called 999, saying he'd been told he killed his girlfriend. Prosecutors initially charged him with murder, but psychiatric experts concluded he couldn't distinguish reality at the time. The court accepted his manslaughter plea. The judge said the killing was 'unexpected and frightful,' partly caused by the drug. PIETRO ADDIS Pietro Addis, 19, was jailed for 15 years in May 2023 after fatally stabbing his grandmother, Sue Addis, at her home in Withdean, East Sussex, in January 2021. Though he admitted the killing, a jury accepted his plea of diminished responsibility due to a psychotic episode, finding him guilty of manslaughter. Addis, diagnosed with ADHD in 2018, had been living with his grandmother but tensions rose over his cannabis use. At the time of the attack, Brighton restaurateur Sue was seeking professional help for him. On the day of the incident, Addis called 999, and police discovered Sue in the bath with 17 stab wounds. Judge Christine Laing KC stated that despite his mental condition, Addis bore significant responsibility. He must serve at least 10 years in custody and five on licence. DANIEL O'HARA WRIGHT Daniel O'Hara Wright, 24, was found not guilty of murdering his mum, Carole Wright, by reason of insanity after a harrowing trial at Oxford Crown Court. Suffering a severe psychotic episode, he believed his mother had become a demon and killed her and gouged out her eyes during a walk at Watlington Hill on October 23, 2020. The day of the killing, he woke up between 10am and 11am and smoked a small amount of cannabis 'through a hollowed out potato'. Witnesses saw him behaving erratically afterward, including biting off a chicken's head, climbing a pylon, and telling strangers he'd "fallen from the sky". Experts agreed he was deeply psychotic, with delusions of being a god or shaman. Psychiatric evidence confirmed he did not understand his actions were wrong. The jury, after over two hours of deliberation, accepted the insanity defence. Wright's deteriorating mental health had been evident for years prior to the killing. Angela, a community service officer and mum-of-five, is still fighting for answers, furious that her uncle's killer was reportedly never reprimanded for her cannabis use, despite allegedly having it on hospital grounds. 'Despite evidence showing the detrimental impact it has on mental health, I cannot see any evidence that anything is done to help mental health patients stop taking it,' she said. 'Borowy was refusing to take her own anti-psychotic medication and self-medicating instead, with disastrous consequences.' Borowy was sectioned in October 2022 for sacrificing two goats she stole from a farm in a witchcraft ceremony. One time she escaped she told police she would murder hundreds of people and had threatened a 'bloodbath'. She was also often found with knives. Tragically, after being granted supervised leave on August 7, Borowy ran off from the healthcare worker accompanying her and travelled to Sheffield where she killed Roger Leadbeater two days later. Angela is now incredibly wary of being around anyone she suspects is using cannabis. 'I went to a 90s festival just last month and I had to leave because the smell of cannabis in the air was too much for me,' she said. 'I didn't feel safe and I was scared of what it could do to the people smoking it. They could be a walking timebomb. 'I know what happened to Roger is rare, but he is proof that it can happen - and the reality is that cannabis is not rare. 'The problem with a murder caused by cannabis is that they are so tied up with mental health that the cannabis side of it gets forgotten. More needs to be done about prevention. 'Sadiq Khan needs to take a walk in our shoes for a week to see what he thinks of cannabis use then.' A spokesperson from the Home Office said: "We are continuing to work with partners across health, policing and wider public services to drive down drug use, ensure more people receive timely treatment and support, and make our streets and communities safer." 17 17
The Guardian
8 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Dad, I love you. Pray for me': the preventable death of Nimroy Hendricks, stabbed in the heart by a 14-year-old
In October 2020, Nimroy Hendricks was struggling to manage a situation that was spiralling out of control. He was 24, his girlfriend was 32, and her daughter, Rhianna (not her real name), was a violent and troubled 14-year-old. At the start of that year, Rhianna had stabbed her mother and set fire to a room in their home, been briefly detained, then returned to live with her. Now she was again threatening to stab her mum. Hendricks was desperate to protect his girlfriend, who he had been with for six months. 'I knew it was getting really bad for Nim,' says his father, also called Nimroy Hendricks. 'He couldn't handle the situation but he felt he couldn't leave his girlfriend because he was worried Rhianna might kill her. The mother was afraid of her daughter. She had reported her daughter's threats to police and social services, but Rhianna remained living with her. 'The last time I saw Nim, we sat on the stairs just talking. He told me how bad the situation was with Rhianna. He said: 'Dad, they're not helping her.' Then he gave me a hug and held me tightly and said: 'Dad, I love you. Pray for me.'' On 27 October, Hendricks went to his girlfriend's home in Crawley, West Sussex, to collect a few things. When he arrived, he saw Rhianna had smashed things up in the flat, and told her off, phoning her mother to tell her what had happened. Then he left. Rhianna was furious. As Hendricks walked down the street with his headphones on, she pursued him with a knife. She shouted that she was going to stab him, then plunged the knife through his heart. Rhianna was convicted of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility at Bristol crown court in July 2021. Medical experts identified 'a significant abnormality of mind' at the time of the killing. She received a sentence of nine years – five in custody, followed by four on extended licence. During the court proceedings she acknowledged Hendricks had been a positive and supportive influence and 'like a brother' to her. After the trial, detective chief inspector Andy Wolstenholme described Hendricks as 'peaceful, selfless and caring'. On 18 July, almost five years after the stabbing, the inquest into Hendricks' death concluded. Penelope Schofield, senior coroner for West Sussex, Brighton and Hove, ruled that his death was due to unlawful killing and that the police and social services had each missed an opportunity to intervene shortly beforehand. 'It is possible that had these matters been addressed the perpetrator may not have been in a position to carry out the act which led to Mr Hendricks' death,' she said. 'The issue with this case was that nobody saw the risk to Nim.' 'Everyone was at risk from this girl,' his mother, Lisa, said afterwards. 'Her mother, police officers, social workers – and Nim. But it was as if Nim was an invisible person.' Hendricks was adored by his parents. Lisa describes him as 'a sweet plum'. She is an artist who previously taught art to prisoners, and Nimroy Hendricks Sr is a musician and decorator. Nimroy and his dad wrote and performed music together and joined forces on decorating jobs. 'When I think of Nim,' says Lisa, 'I think of him in the water in Jamaica, free and happy during days out on the beach when he was swimming, snorkelling, jumping the waves and smiling, showing his missing teeth with his soft curly hair full of sand.' 'We have not just lost our son,' Lisa and Nimroy said at the inquest. 'We have lost our best friend. There is no way to describe the unbearable pain of life without him.' The day before Hendricks died, Rhianna's mother had reported her missing to the police. She was well known to them. When Rhianna was found in the early hours of 27 October, just hours before killing Hendricks, the police agreed, after some deliberation, that she could go and stay with an 18-year-old girl she described as her 'cousin', but who was not in fact a relative and did not live at the address she had provided to the police. Hendricks' parents believe that had Rhianna been taken into protective custody that night their son would still be alive. An earlier report into the actions of Sussex police by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, however, did not identify any failings. It was only after Hendricks' death that a fuller picture emerged of Rhianna's background. Rhianna's mother became pregnant with her when she was 17. She was subjected to domestic violence while she was pregnant, which experts believe impacted her daughter in the womb. According to a 2023 review into the events leading up to Hendricks' killing, Rhianna told professionals she had to look after herself at times even when she was a toddler. She displayed violent and aggressive behaviour from the age of six, and at eight she was permanently excluded from her third primary school, after numerous episodes of restraint and fixed-term exclusions. Referrals to the child and adolescent mental health services were made, but rejected, because she did not 'meet the threshold'. In 2017, when she was 10, she told professionals she had smothered her three-year-old half-brother in a rage. He survived. In June 2019, when she was 13, she was the victim of a serious attack. Around the same time, she was linked to county lines drug gangs. She was diagnosed with PTSD, mild learning difficulties and conduct disorder, and possibly also ADHD. A psychological assessment when she was 13 found she was functioning as an eight- or nine-year-old. When asked about her safe places and who had protected her as a child, she was unable to name any person or place. The 2023 review concluded 'there was a failure of the system as a whole' in relation to Rhianna and that 'the systems in place to protect such vulnerable children are ineffectual'. It found that those supposed to be supporting Rhianna demonstrated a lack of professional curiosity and critical thinking. It also identified 'adultification bias', whereby adults perceive black children like Rhianna to be older than they are and fail to treat them in an age-appropriate way. 'I honestly think part of the failings were due to the fact that she is black and Nimroy was black,' says Lisa. 'They were doing lots of things, but none of them were joined up and none of them worked.' A common thread in reviews into violent deaths is that opportunities to intervene were missed and communication between agencies was deficient. In Rhianna's case there were so many plans – multi-agency support plans, education and healthcare plans, children-in-need plans and child protection plans – and all of them failed. The thousands of pages of notes written about her by various professionals could not save Hendricks' life. The number of agencies that intervened may even have had a negative impact on Rhianna's wellbeing. The review stated that Rhianna 'was known to be overwhelmed by the number of services and professionals involved'. It added: 'There is little evidence that, despite significant input and undoubted time and effort, partnership intervention had any positive effect over [Rhianna's] lifetime.' According to Dr Elie Godsi, a consultant clinical psychologist and chartered member of the British Psychological Society, women and girls commit about 10% of all violent acts. 'This is almost exclusively due to multiple childhood adversity and trauma … in particular, interpersonal violence, substance misuse, mental health problems and self-harm,' he says. 'If you have been a powerless victim, one way of taking back control and power is through being violent. When you have a child with that much trauma, they can't regulate their emotions or behaviour and any kind of conflict is magnified.' In March, Susannah Hancock's review of girls detained after criminal offences in England and Wales recommended they should no longer be placed in young offender institutions due to the 'complex mental and physical health issues' they often face. Instead, they should be placed in secure schools or secure children's homes. At the time of the review, just 10 girls were being held across England and Wales. It found that offending in this group of girls was 'closely linked to exposure to multiple, traumatic events'. Most girls who commit violent offences are found to have suffered abuse from a very young age or even while still in the womb. At the time the relationship between Hendricks and Rhianna's mother began, Rhianna had just been released from child detention on licence after the stabbing and fire-setting incidents. 'Nim told me how beautiful it was to see them reunited,' says Lisa. 'Rhianna was learning to ride a bicycle and Nim was a loving and big-hearted presence there.' But Rhianna was prone to bouts of extreme anger and couldn't be talked down when her rage descended. In the days before she killed Hendricks, Rhianna's anger had been triggered by her mother leaving their home in Crawley to travel to Birmingham, so she could care for her dying mother. She had returned to Crawley the day before Rhianna killed Hendricks, but was fearful of going back to their home because of the threat from her daughter. Instead, she stayed with Hendricks. Killings by children are extremely rare; killing by girls even more so. But police, social services, schools and youth justice teams need to recognise that children can commit domestic violence as well as be the victims of it, says Lisa. 'These children need to be considered as perpetrators in order that those subjected to this domestic violence are given the protection they deserve. These children, who are so obviously troubled, deserve proper care and therapeutic interventions. If the state does not put in place the structures to help children who [might] kill, we are in increasingly dangerous territory.' Hendricks' parents are not out for revenge. 'I forgave Rhianna straight away when I read about all the things she has been through,' says Hendricks Sr. 'Everyone failed her.' He constantly replays the weeks before Rhianna killed his son. 'It was terrible to see someone that young with no protection. They should have kept a close eye on her. She needed help, but they didn't look after her. I go and sit at Nim's graveside and think about how he would still be alive if things had been done differently.' He is also haunted by the police's refusal to let him see his son after Rhianna stabbed him. When he got the news, he rushed to the scene. 'All I wanted was to see my son. My heart was racing. But the police escorted me away. There was a partition separating me from him. I was told by police I should not stay there. I said, 'I can't go – this is my son.'' 'The system is completely broken,' Lisa says, 'and we have paid the highest price for that.' Like Lisa, Hendricks Sr is calling for a fundamental change in the way dangerous and troubled children are managed. 'When people have mental health problems, they need to be kept in a safe place,' he says. 'I don't think prison is the right place for girls like her and I would never want her to be there. She needs to be put into a therapeutic environment where she is safe and can get the care she needs to heal.' 'Losing Nim is a daily event – it never leaves me,' says Lisa. 'A huge part of me left when he was killed. I am not the same person. It has been harrowing to lose him to the hand of a child. Nim was a beautiful soul, a kind, imperfect, handsome, funny, wise-for-his-years and talented young man. He was an absolute joy and deserved 100% better.' 'Nim and I were so close and I have to continue living with this. I feel so lonely,' says Hendricks Sr. 'All my son was trying to do was help a girl who needed help.'
