By Charlotte Webster-
A murdered man with learning difficulty was let down by professionals who had “the knowledge, legal means, and opportunity” to prevent his death, a joint safeguarding adult review and domestic homicide review has found. The 2014 murder of a young adult, 22 year old Phillip Nicholson, a man with learning disabilities, occurred because professionals did not take steps to do so, a joint safeguarding adult review and domestic homicide review has found.
Phillip Nicholson, 22, died from a stab wound to the neck at a flat in the Boscombe area of Bournemouth on 26 May. Isabella Gossling and her lover Richard Moors, 25, admitetd murder and a serving a life sentence for the killing.
Nicholson was stabbed to death for allegedly raping his girlfriend. Nicholson was lured to a place he was told that an old fling by the name of Gina was waiting for him. It was a honey trap to bring his days to an end. A review has concluded that a number of professionals failed late Nicholson, who was not fit to make decisions about relationships on his own. Several failings were discovered which contributed to Nicholson’s savage murder.
The damning review said it was “regrettable” that attempts to reassess Nicholson’s capacity to make decisions about relationships “was not persevered with or returned to at a later date.” It added that partner agencies could have worked more effectively to protect that adult.
The report said a Multi Agency Group, MARAC, appeared to assume the adult safeguarding plan would address the high risk of domestic abuse. Yet, there was “no evidence that they sought assurance that this was actually the case”. It also added that agencies involved in supporting Nicholson demonstrated “little focus” on safeguarding him from Gossling and Moors.
“Whilst the threat that [Gossling and Moors] jointly presented to Harry was most strongly visible only in the final month of his life, indications of this threat were apparent from November 2014.”
The combined investigation by Bournemouth and Poole safeguarding adults board and Poole community safety partnership published last week, identified “a lack of watchfulness and alertness” in respect of Phillip Nicholson’s adult safeguarding plan which was delayed and was not updated to reflect changes to his situation. Nicholson killers Isabella Gossling and Richard Moors were jailed for a total of 41 years in 2015.
It added that agencies involved in supporting Nicholson demonstrated “little focus” on safeguarding him from Gossling and Moors. “Whilst the threat that [Gossling and Moors] jointly presented to Harry was most strongly visible only in the final month of his life, indications of this threat were apparent from November 2014.”
REGRETTABLE
A failure to reassess Nicholson’s capacity to make decisions about relationships was also labelled as “regrettable” by authors of the review, who said staff had no alternative but to respect questionable decisions made by Nicholson. According to the report, the partner agencies failed to work as effectively as possible to prevent the scale of abuse suffered by the victim.
If a lack of capacity had been demonstrated and it was shown Nicholson could not “make decisions to protect himself”, it would have “opened up the opportunity to consider what decision or actions could be taken on behalf in his best interests”.Unable to reassess Nicholson’s capacity, the report concluded staff working with Nicholson “had no alternative” but to continue to assume that he had the capacity to make decisions on his own behalf, including “decisions which appeared rash, unwise or irrational”.
The report also said the expectation that MARAC , which assumed the adult safeguarding plan would address the high risk of domestic abuse was flawed in making this assumption.. There was “no evidence that they sought assurance that this was actually the case”, it added. The report also condemned agencies involved in supporting Nicholson for demonstrating “little focus” on safeguarding him from Gossling and Moors.
“Whilst the threat from the perpetrators were most strongly visible only in the final month of his life, indications of this threat were apparent from November 2014, the report said. It added that there was “an assumption” from agencies that the adult safeguarding plan was an effective vehicle for keeping Nicholson safe from a number of risks, including the risk of domestic abuse.“This does not appear to have been the case”, the report concluded.
Nicholson suffered from global developmental delay and had autistic traits. He was supported to live independently by The Care Division (TCD), a domiciliary care agency. One in eight learning disabled deaths affected by service failures, according to report . In the following months, Nicholson’s relationship concerned professionals as Gossling took financial advantage of him; for example, taking out phone contracts in his name.
Gossling also sent “threatening text messages” to Nicholson, prompting Poole adults’ services to convene a Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC).
THREATS
Nicholson contacted the police in September to report threatening text messages from Gossling, who was now pregnant; the messages warned him to “leave [Gossling] alone”.
Nicholson’s capacity to engage in sexual relationships was to be reassessed, but the required reassessment never took place. The report stated that “conflicting information” given repeatedly by Nicholson cited as the reason. In May 2015, Nicholson received more threatening text messages from Gossling and Moors to the effect that “he was a dead man” and “should go and dig his own grave.”
On the morning of 26 May 2015, recordings obtained from Gossling’s phone Gossling referred to the alleged rape of her by Nicholson, which appeared to anger Moors. The pair then worked together to lure Nicholson to Gossling’s flat, making him believe Gina, another woman Nicholson had a relationship with, was at the property and wanted to see him. There he was stabbed to death.’
CAPACITY
It said that, if a lack of capacity had been demonstrated and it was shown Nicholson could not “make decisions to protect himself”, then it would have “opened up the opportunity to consider what decision or actions could be taken on behalf in his best interests”.Unable to reassess Nicholson’s capacity, the report concluded staff working with Nicholson “had no alternative” but to continue to assume that he had the capacity to make decisions on his own behalf, including “decisions which appeared rash, unwise or irrational”.
Image: Dorset Police