{"id":172329,"date":"2023-03-13T17:52:35","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T17:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=172329"},"modified":"2023-03-13T17:52:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T17:52:35","slug":"mother-of-boy-who-was-groomed-by-county-lines-gang-slams-inquest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/mother-of-boy-who-was-groomed-by-county-lines-gang-slams-inquest\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother of boy who was &apos;groomed&apos; by county lines gang slams inquest"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>&#8216;We have been deprived of answers&#8217;: Mother of teenage boy who was &#8216;groomed&#8217; by county lines gang slams inquest as coroner says he can not be sure drugs were to blame for his death in homeless hostel<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ben Nelson-Roux was found dead in a hostel for homeless adults in April 2020\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A heartbroken mother today said her family had been &#8216;deprived of answers&#8217; after a coroner ruled the cause of her 16-year-old son&#8217;s death in an adult homeless hostel was &#8216;unascertained&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ben Nelson-Roux, a former pupil of St Aidan&#8217;s Church of England High School in Harrogate, was &#8216;groomed&#8217; by County Lines gangsters to deal Class A drugs, including crack cocaine, in cities including York and Sheffield.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He was tragically found dead at a hostel for homeless adults in April 2020 after warnings from his psychologist that &#8216;something terrible would happen to him&#8217; if he did not get proper help.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Coroner Jon Heath\u00a0said it was likely Ben died from misuse of multiple drugs, but the cause could not be fully ascertained because a post-mortem was not carried out due to Covid restrictions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said the accommodation he had been placed in was &#8216;unsuitable&#8217; but could not say whether this contributed to his death. The coroner promised to write to the health secretary about the lack of facilities for minors with substance issues.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/03\/13\/16\/68653895-11854747-image-m-3_1678725585968.jpg\" height=\"754\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Ben Nelson-Roux, with his mother, Kate, was found dead at a hostel for homeless adults in April 2020. Kate had built an annex for him to stay in at home<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/03\/13\/16\/68653897-11854747-image-a-4_1678725596263.jpg\" height=\"638\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Ben&#8217;s mother Kate Roux (pictured with her husband, Barry Nelson) said the family had been &#8216;deprived of any answers&#8217; about the cause of his death<\/p>\n<p>In a statement outside North Yorkshire Coroner&#8217;s Court, Ben&#8217;s mother Kate Roux\u00a0said the family had been &#8216;deprived of any answers&#8217; about the cause of his death.<\/p>\n<p>Social workers who saw Ben 15 times in nine weeks before his death noted &#8216;a homeless person&#8217;s hostel was not suitable to meet Ben&#8217;s needs&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;On the day he died Ben&#8217;s homeless prevention worker described his accommodation as dangerous. &#8221;Unsuitable&#8221; does not do it justice. &#8216;The Council relied on charity for a place for him to sleep.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The court heard that on April 6, 2020, Ben&#8217;s parents had raised concerns about his &#8216;deteriorating&#8217; mental health.<\/p>\n<p>He had gone to hospital several times for incidents of self-harm or attempted self-harm, including falling in front of a car.<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Roux, a businesswoman and Tai Chi instructor, continued:\u00a0&#8216;He was discharged from hospital despite spiralling mental health problems and a clear risk he was a danger to himself and others.<\/p>\n<p> &#8216;He was exploited by criminals. He became more violent at home. He was also at risk of violence from others. He was regularly held in police custody for his own safety.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/03\/13\/16\/68653903-11854747-image-a-7_1678725605646.jpg\" height=\"390\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>Ben&#8217;s behaviour had become so &#8216;chaotic and risk taking lifestyle&#8217; had led to increased drug taking and suicide attempts over Xmas 2019, according to his phycologist<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;He was listed at the Home Office as a victim of modern slavery.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;He was arrested and questioned by police 26 times. There were no psychiatric beds, no escalation of safeguarding measures, and no child protection in place.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Roux complained about the lack of a full post-mortem in her son&#8217;s case.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Our legal team is not aware of any case in 2020 when an invasive post-mortem was not carried out, particularly following the death of a child,&#8217; she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;To us, Ben&#8217;s life was seen as less valuable because he used drugs. There was no further investigation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We feel the coroner&#8217;s conclusions did not grapple with the complexities of Ben&#8217;s case and focused on drugs and alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;There was no mention of the impact of Ben being a confirmed victim of modern slavery. There was no mention of his unexplained injuries or the lack of escalation around that.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Heath said Ben&#8217;s life &#8216;became more chaotic&#8217; when he left home and was placed at Cavendish House in Harrogate,\u00a0a homeless shelter for over 25s,<\/p>\n<p>In March, he started skipping appointments.<\/p>\n<p>The coroner said: &#8216;He said he could not be himself at the hostel because he was in an adult environment and by presenting himself as something different he was losing himself\u2026 others were taking drugs there.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/03\/13\/16\/68653901-11854747-Today_Coroner_Jon_Heath_said_it_was_likely_Ben_died_from_misuse_-m-10_1678725653313.jpg\" height=\"513\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Today, Coroner Jon Heath said it was likely Ben died from misuse of multiple drugs, but the cause could not be fully ascertained because a post-mortem was not carried out due to Covid restrictions<\/p>\n<p>Social workers who saw Ben 15 times in nine weeks before his death noted &#8216;a homeless persons hostel was not suitable to meet Ben&#8217;s needs&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>But he refused to return to his mother&#8217;s home or enter the children&#8217;s care system despite his deteriorating mental health and showing signs of a personality disorder and &#8216;grooming behaviours&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>A rapid review meeting held after his death concluded that &#8216;Ben&#8217;s case was complex due to exploitation and his age&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>The coroner said &#8216;police intelligence was being provided anyway through the risk assessment&#8217; despite Ben telling his safeguarding team &#8216;he did not feel he was exploited&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Summing up the evidence of Hostel Manager Jill Hayward, the coroner said: &#8216;She was concerned he was the age he was at the hostel. She described him as a likeable excitable cheeky chappie.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;He was very outgoing. He would talk to anybody. She was always ticking him off for breaking the rules and wanting to do his own thing.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/03\/13\/16\/68653893-11854747-image-a-9_1678725621824.jpg\" height=\"963\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Ben&#8217;s parents holding a portrait of their son today outside North Yorkshire Coroner&#8217;s Court\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She had introduced a visitor to her as his &#8216;brother&#8217;. When challenged about his drug taking &#8216;he just shrugged his shoulders. But you could not dislike him. He was such a nice kid,&#8217; she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The coroner added: &#8216;She confirmed other residents had criminal convictions for serous offences and alcohol and drugs were on the premises.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Had she known more about Ben&#8217;s background she would have liaised more with his social worker.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Heath said Ben was top of the waiting list for alternative accommodation but Covid had led to delays.<\/p>\n<p>On the night of his death there was no security guard on duty due to a contract dispute.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, police were satisfied no one else entered the room and there were no suspicious circumstances.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-11854747\/Mother-teenage-boy-groomed-county-lines-gang-slams-inquest.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;We have been deprived of answers&#8217;: Mother<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":172328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23056],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mother of boy who was &amp;apos;groomed&amp;apos; 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