A trans teen from Bexhill, described as a ‘cheeky fun ball of energy’, who was found dead while on the NHS gender clinic waiting list, had his needs ‘swept under the carpet’ by social services, his mother has told a coroner.
Jason Pulman, 15, struggled with mental health problems as well as his gender identity, and was regularly self-harming and abusing drink and drugs in the run-up to his death, mother Emily told Hastings Coroners Court.
The talented artist was frequently relocated by social services to try and keep them safe from his violent birth father.
While he underwent a successful social transition, he remained ‘adamant’ he wanted to see doctors at the Gender Identity Development Service in order to ‘feel better in his body’, but did not have the chance before his death.
By early 2022, Jason’s worsening behaviour meant the family knew he needed more significant psychiatric help.
“He needed more than just a conversation on the phone”, Mrs Pulman told Assistant Coroner Michael Spencer in her witness statement.
The family “were done trying to get help from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services)”, and Jason himself thought it was ‘pointless’.
Mrs Pulman told Hastings Coroners Court she was not impressed by Sussex Police, saying she had phoned them four times since discovering his empty bed on the morning of his death, with an officer only arriving at the family home that evening after 7pm.
“I felt in my stomach that something bad was going to happen. I just felt so frustrated the police were doing nothing”, she said.
“The police could have done something and they didn’t. I was so used to social services brushing it [concerns] under the carpet and it felt the same.”
Only hours after the initial police visit, on April 19, 2022, the teenager was found dead in a park in nearby Eastbourne.
