Dancer who took his own life 'badly let down'

The parents of a talented young performer who took his own life while under the care of a mental health trust have said staff failed to keep him safe.

An inquest into the death of Conor Dowers, 22, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, heard his body was found at a construction site in London on 21 December 2020 after he absconded from Highgate Mental Health Centre.

It concluded he died from suicide with cannabis as a contributing factor.

North London Mental Health Partnership said the trust had reviewed its processes and developed additional training for staff.

Conor, who had been taking dance classes since he was a young boy, was training to be an actor and singer, and excelled at highland dancing.

He studied performing arts at Urdang Academy in London, but his parents told the BBC that he started to struggle during lockdown in 2020.

His mum Susan said he rang her on 4 December excited to find out what part he was going to get in a show. But the following day she received a phone call from the police to say her son had been admitted into a mental health facility.

Initially his parents said they had not been told why he was sectioned, but they later discovered that on 5 December their son had climbed a 70ft (21.3m) crane and had to be talked down by police officers.

He was looked after at Highgate Mental Health Centre but because of Covid restrictions, his family said they were not allowed to visit.

A nurse told Mrs Dowers that he had suffered a breakdown caused by a drug-induced psychosis as a result of smoking cannabis, which his mum said was a "complete shock".

Conor spent his 22nd birthday in hospital on 11 December.

While under the care of the trust, he was allowed out unsupervised with his girlfriend for short periods.

But on 19 December he self-harmed, and two days later he was told he would not be allowed home to see his family for Christmas.

"I think it destroyed him," Mrs Dowers said. "I was told by hospital staff he begged to come home."

Instead staff said he would be allowed some accompanied leave that day, consisting of two half-an-hour breaks outside, she said.

But on the second period of leave, his parents say he got away from a member of staff and ran off.

That evening his body was discovered on a construction site near Tottenham Court Road tube station.

Police visited the parents early the next morning to break the news of his death.

"We’re absolutely devastated," Mrs Dowers said.

"It’s shattered us," Gary Dowers, Conor's dad, added. "You just feel numb all the time… the pain is unreal.

"In reality it should never have happened, they shouldn’t have given him leave if he’d self-harmed on the 19th. Security to me was non-existent."

Both believed their son was failed by the trust and wanted changes to be made to improve record keeping and staff training on how to restrain patients.

Mr Dowers said: "If a person’s got self-harm issues they should never ever get leave or if they do get leave there should be more than one person with them because that person’s at risk."

The couple have gone on to raise thousands of pounds for dance and drama groups Conor attended in order to leave a lasting legacy for their son.

A spokesperson for the North London Mental Health Partnership, which oversees Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We have extended our deepest condolences to the family of the deceased. We are very sorry that this happened while this patient was in our care.

"Since this incident, we have reviewed our processes and developed additional training for inpatient staff, including bank staff, to focus on some of the themes that arose at the inquest, particularly around the management of absconds from hospital."

But Mrs Dowers said the trust "badly let him down".

She said: "We have not heard from them at all following the inquest and there has been no attempt at an apology... [they] should have restrained him as he was absconding and had they done so we think he would still be alive today.

"We cannot bring Conor back but at least we now know that his death was not in vain and that we have left him a legacy that the trust have now changed their procedures following the inquest, and are now training staff on restraining patients when they are on escorted leave from the ward."

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