Police responses to missing people must change after teenager death, couple say

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A couple have said police must change how they deal with missing person reports to better protect those at risk of harm following the suicide of a teenager who was reported missing several hours before he died.

Jason Pulman’s mother, Emily Pulman, told police her missing son was transgender, had self-harmed, had previously attempted to take his own life and could have boarded a train around 11 hours before he was found dead, aged 15, in Hampden Park, Eastbourne, in April 2022.

An inquest into his death later found Sussex Police had responded inadequately to his going missing, one of several failings which contributed to Jason’s death.

Mrs Pulman and her husband, Mark Pulman, are now taking legal action against the force over an alleged breach of human rights, claiming it should have acted sooner given that Jason posed “a heightened risk of suicide”.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr Pulman, 50, said he still feared the police had not learned from Jason’s case and were too “stubborn” to change.

He said: “Our police force seems to think ‘we’ll just pop round, and grab a photo and have a quick look around the bedroom, then we will go back to the station and make a decision on what to do’.

“It’s not good enough.”

In court documents filed at the High Court by law firm Bindmans, Nick Armstrong KC, for Mr and Mrs Pulman, said that on April 19 2022, Mrs Pulman rang police at around 9.45am and told police the teenager was missing.

Jason was graded as “medium” risk, and the call handler also noted that there was “no suicide intent believed”, contrary to what Mrs Pulman told them, Mr Armstrong said.

An officer did not access the report until around 1.30pm, and after Mrs Pulman had contacted police twice more to tell them Jason was believed to be travelling to London, most likely by train.

The officer maintained Jason’s risk as medium, did not contact British Transport Police (BTP) and “did not even speak to Mark or Emily or attempt to do so”, Mr Armstrong added, with no further actions raised as “urgent”.

While BTP were alerted at around 6.15pm, this was after Jason was spotted by a train guard, who later told an inquest he would have attempted to intervene had he known Jason was at risk.

A Sussex Police officer did not attend the family home until around 7.30pm, and around an hour later, Jason was found dead in Hampden Park by a member of the public.

Mr Armstrong said calls to Sussex Police are graded by a call handler, with the first officer attending the scene then reassessing the level of risk.

He added that the force’s policy states the first attending officer plays a “pivotal role” in setting the pace of the investigation, and that “golden hour” principles of finding missing people apply.

As well as a missing persons policy, Mr Armstrong said a call could be graded as “grade one” where there “is, or is likely to be, a risk of danger to life”.

Mr Armstrong said: “Jason was at real and immediate risk of life-threatening harm.

“He exhibited a number of characteristics, and fitted a profile, which the defendant knew or ought to have known represented a heightened risk of suicide.”

He continued: “Generally, there was a serious delay of, in the end, nearly 11 hours, during which little if any effective action was taken.

“The defendant’s action was in all respects slow, and strikingly casual, given the scale of the vulnerabilities and risks being reported.

“Had there been a reasonable response, there was a real prospect of a different outcome.”

Mr Pulman told Jason’s inquest that he made more than 100 calls to organisations, including train operators, hospitals and hostels after Jason went missing, to circulate his details and images.

But many organisations would not take the information as he was not a police officer, and it took more than an hour for a hospital to agree to take Jason’s description.

HE told PA the system used is “not good enough for people with mental health conditions” as it is “too black and white”.

Mrs Pulman, 39, said that changing how police respond to missing person reports would be an indicator of learning, as missing teenagers currently “fall through the cracks” and reports are perceived as “flippant”.

She said: “The beginning of the process is where it all went wrong.”

She continued: “If they are not admitting to the failings that happened for Jason, then they’re admitting that there is nothing wrong with their system, which isn’t the case.”

She added: “Kids Jason’s age have so many markers of worry and stuff they are going through, which systems made all those years ago cannot cater for.”

Following Jason’s inquest, Sussex Police said it had introduced contingency measures for checking reports are resourced and graded appropriately.

It also said that a multi-agency group had been launched to “put measures in place to ensure vulnerable children with complex mental health needs”.

In response to the High Court claim, a spokesperson said: “Our sincere condolences remain with Jason’s family following their tragic loss; however, we are unable to comment further whilst legal proceedings are ongoing.”