Fabian Buxton

A MOTHER described how her 24-year-old son passed away alone with “a broken heart” as an inquest to determine how he died began this week.

Fabian Buxton, who was “thoughtful, intelligent, and liked by his peers”, was found in a hotel room in Finsbury Park last October after he was twice deemed not sick enough to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

Amy Buxton-Jennings, his mother, told St Pancras Coroner’s Court on Wednesday about how she witnessed her son becoming increasingly unwell and not receive the treatment he needed.

“It just felt like watching a car crash in slow motion,” she said.

The court heard how Mr Buxton had graduated from Goldsmiths University with a 2:1 in history and politics while starting to experience a deterioration in his mental health after suffering from drug-induced psychosis in 2019.

During her evidence, Ms Buxton-Jennings said she had tried to get her son help through multiple NHS and private mental health services, but was told that it was probable that Mr Buxton suffered from a drug dependency rather than any underlying psychological illness.

In September 2023, Mr Buxton then attended Delamere, a £18,000 a month rehab facility in Cheshire which also offered help for patients with “dual diagnoses” – those suffering from mental health problems alongside addiction.

Dr Catherine Carney, the lead psychiatrist at Delamere, told the court that Mr Buxton’s behaviour became more erratic during his four-week stay at the facility, with staff reporting that he was muttering to himself, experiencing fixed delusions, and becoming aggressive even though he was now drug-free.

Dr Carney added that Delamere was “not geared to look after people with an acute mental health presentation”, although she said that information on the facility’s website about their capacity to help mental health patients “could be misinterpreted”.

Dr Carney made two recommendations that he be assessed under the Mental Health Act, but he was deemed to be “not detainable” after both assessments.

The court then heard how staff at Delamere allowed Mr Buxton to leave their care with no phone, only £50 in his pocket, and no home to return to despite him having presented with symptoms of psychosis.

Dr Carney said that “it was certainly not ideal” to put Mr Buxton on a train back to London with little idea of whether he would get further help, but that the team “did all [they] could to make it as safe” as it could be.

“At the end of the day, we couldn’t stop him leaving Delamere, and on the 19th [of October], he was adamant that he was going,” she added.

Ms Buxton-Jennings told the court she believed her son had been “let down” by Delamere and criticised the medical professionals in the four years leading up to his death for failing to properly diagnose him.

“In my opinion, there seems to have been too much emphasis on Fabian’s drug use rather than his mental health problems,” Ms Buxton-Jennings said.

The three-day inquest continues.