The mother and stepfather of a transgender teenager who took his own life after going missing are taking High Court legal action against a police force whose response was found to have potentially contributed to his death.
Jason Pulman was found dead aged 15 in Hampden Park in Eastbourne in April 2022, with an inquest jury finding in April last year that his emotional and mental needs were “inadequately assessed and provided for” by multiple services, and that police “responded inadequately” to his going missing.
Emily and Mark Pulman are now suing Sussex Police over an alleged breach of human rights, with around ten hours passing between Jason being reported missing and an officer first attending their family home.
Jason Pulman’s mother, Emily Pulman, and his stepfather, Mark Pulman. (Picture: Anahita Hossein-Pour/PA)They claim the force “failed properly or at all to protect Jason against the risk of suicide” after he was graded only a “medium risk”, and that there was a “real prospect of a different outcome” if there was a “reasonable response” to Jason’s disappearance.
They also say the force is “flip-flopping” over its position and whether it has learned from Jason’s death.
The force has expressed its “sincere condolences” to Jason’s family.
Speaking to the PA news agency, the couple said Jason’s death, the subsequent inquest and legal battle had been “devastating”.
Mrs Pulman, 39, said: “If the police can actually take accountability for what has happened and what went wrong, that is the only way they can start making changes.”
She continued: “I think about Jason and how much he used to fight for things he believed in. He used to go to protests and research and get involved in different things because he wanted to make change.”
“I want to try and get some change for kids like Jason, as I know that that is what he would want as well.
“When I feel like quitting, I have got Jason’s cheeky little head in my head, with his outfit, with all his badges on, saying ‘you must fight for what you believe’, and that is what gives me strength.”
Jason began identifying as a male aged around 14, but never received specialist gender dysphoria treatment due to assessment delays.
In documents filed at the High Court by law firm Bindmans, Nick Armstrong KC, for Mr and Mrs Pulman, claimed Jason also received insufficient mental health support.
On April 19, 2022, Mrs Pulman discovered Jason was missing from their home in East Sussex and called the police.
She informed a call handler that Jason was transgender, had previously self-harmed and attempted to take his own life, and may have taken public transport.
The call handler graded Jason as medium-risk, but an officer did not look at the case for more than three hours after the first call, despite Mrs Pulman ringing police twice more and stating Jason had informed a friend he was travelling to London, most likely by train.
Jason remained graded as medium-risk, the British Transport Police (BTP) were not notified, and an officer did not attend the family’s home for almost 10 hours after the first call.
This was despite there being “other opportunities” to intercept Jason, said Mr Armstrong.
Around an hour after police visited the house, Jason was found dead in Hampden Park by a member of the public.
In a prevention of future deaths report last year, a coroner said Jason died “potentially through his mental health and gender identity issues”, and that it was “also possible Jason may have been prevented from committing suicide” if BTP was made aware that he was missing.
Mr Armstrong said police knew or should have known that Jason “represented a real and immediate risk of life-threatening harm”, but that their response was “slow, and strikingly casual”.
He continued that Jason was a “source of unlimited joy”, describing him as “funny, mischievous, artistic, rude and unconventional”, and that his death was an “unimaginable tragedy”.
Nine days after Jason’s death, Mr and Mrs Pulman met then-chief superintendent Katy Woolford.
Mr Armstrong said that Ms Woolford told the Pulmans that they had done “everything right” and that there had been failings by the police, including not immediately grading Jason as high-risk.
But the barrister continued that there was a “significant and distressing shift in the police’s evidence” at Jason’s inquest, with the force allegedly seeking to exclude evidence related to the meeting with Ms Woolford and claiming there was “no arguable omission by anyone”.
The force accepted the inquest findings, stating that its service “fell below the standards expected”, but is accused of changing its stance again when the family threatened to bring legal action.
Mr Armstrong said that the force’s “reversal and re-reversal” on its position was “shameful”, adding: “The claimants do not know whether the defendant has or has not learned from the inquest process.”
A Sussex Police 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.”
With input from PA
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