Harley Watson's killer had 'flawed' mental health assessment

Harley Watson died hours after being struck by a car that drove into a group of children outside Debden Park High School

A paranoid schizophrenic who ran over and killed a 12-year-old boy was released from police custody months earlier following a "flawed" mental health assessment, an inquest heard.

Harley Watson died after he was hit by a car outside Debden Park High School in Loughton, Essex, on 2 December 2019.

Terence Glover, then aged 52, admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility in 2021.

A jury at Essex Coroner's Court has retired to consider a conclusion.

Glover was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act following sentencing last year.

The inquest in Chelmsford heard that Glover, who drove into a crowd of children outside the school, had a mental health assessment after repeated phone calls to 999 in the months before the crash, where he said he "might run some school children over".

Essex's senior coroner Lincoln Brookes said he had expressed paranoid beliefs that he was being persecuted.

'Fundamentally flawed'

Following his arrest in September 2019 on suspicion of malicious communication he was given a mental health assessment, which the coroner said "appeared to take no more than three minutes".

Summing up the case, the coroner referred to evidence from one of two psychiatric doctors who carried out the assessment of Glover at Harlow Police Station. He said the doctor had accepted that the assessment was "fundamentally flawed".

The two doctors had not seen a report by a community psychiatric nurse and they "should have asked for more information", Mr Brookes said.

He said the assessment was "brief, not least because Mr Glover wouldn't engage".

Mr Brookes said the second doctor had "similar recollections about the sub-optimal approach to this particular Mental Health Act assessment".

Terence Glover was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act

Glover gave a no comment interview about the "abusive" 999 calls and was released under police investigation the next day on 1 October.

At Snaresbrook Crown Court, he admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility of Harley Watson and the attempted murders of one adult and nine children, who were also injured in the attack.

The coroner invited the jury to consider possible issues in the case, including the "adequacy" of the Mental Health Act assessment.

He also invited it to consider the adequacy of information sharing, the police investigation of Glover for offences of malicious communications and the adequacy of steps taken by police after Glover's release.