The parents of a young man who was stabbed to death by a 14-year-old girl say their son was failed by the state.
Nimroy Hendricks, 24, was fatally stabbed in the chest in Crawley in October 2020. He knew his killer as he had met her mother months before his death.
An inquest has found opportunities were missed by both police and social workers when the girl was reported as missing in the hours before Nimroy was killed.
The girl was known to the authorities from birth. For legal reasons she can only be named as Child A.
She had a long criminal record, a history of violence and was known to carry knives. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility in 2021.
Nimroy’s parents blame a “catalogue of errors” by the authorities throughout the girl’s troubled life and warn if the system does not change more people will be killed by violent children.
“I just wonder how much more will they wait on to see happen before they do something”, Nimroy’s father, who has the same first name, told Sky News.
“This girl who had mental problems, who was known to the system for so many years, and they just laid back and knew that she is just on the brink to kill someone because she attempted it so many times.
“They have all the warning signs. So for me the system needs to change… and if it doesn’t change sooner or later you’ll hear another parent like us.”
Nimroy’s mother, Lisa Hendricks, agrees.
“When somebody sticks a knife into your son’s heart and kills him… I’ve had to read everything,” she says.
“Because you wonder how he spent his time in that last moment – after he knew he’d been stabbed and after he was bleeding out and he was dying.”
Since their son’s death, they’ve watched in horror as other children known to the authorities have gone on to kill, including the knife attack in Southport carried out by Axel Rudakubana who was 17 when he murdered seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, six-year-old Bebe King, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar.
“Since Nim’s been killed, there has been a raft of children who are running around killing people,” Mrs Hendricks told Sky News.
“Far more serious interventions need to be put in place when they begin to flex those very, very dangerous muscles.
“Does anybody think that this is going to get better unless those who are really, really in need of it receive and are able to access the support that they need for their troubled children. How? This cannot get better unless that is actually done,” she says.
‘Downplayed, downgraded, dismissed’
Child A was born in Birmingham. Social services had been involved with her mother, even before she gave birth. The warning signs began to emerge from a young age.
By the age of six, she was increasingly violent and aggressive at school. She was permanently excluded from her third primary school aged eight.
By 2019 she had been arrested several times, including for being in possession of a bladed article. At one point she was taken into police protection. She also spent time in emergency foster care.
In 2020 she stabbed her mother in the leg then set fire to her bedroom. That led to her being remanded in secure juvenile custody.
A psychological assessment warned she needed therapy before living with her mother again. That did not happen.
When she was released from custody, she was returned to the care of her mother who had moved to West Sussex.
The psychological assessment was not shared with authorities there. In the days before she killed Nimroy, she had made threats to stab her mother and been reported as missing.
“When you really look back at this entire scenario, it’s like every single thing with her has been downplayed, downgraded, dismissed, put aside,” Mrs Hendricks says.
‘Someone has to be accountable’
Nimroy’s parents now want individual accountability for their son’s death.
“Someone has to be accountable, knowing how dangerous she was and having all the paperwork, evidence about her,” Mr Hendricks says.
“She was known to them for so many years.”
Nimroy’s mother fears their son’s death is one of so many that the authorities just want to move on.
“We’ve been treated as ‘well go away, deal with it’,” she says
“I just feel as if nobody cares. Nobody cares. That’s how I feel. Nobody cares.”
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A spokesperson for Sussex Police told Sky News The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigated the case after it was referred by Sussex Police in respect of this contact with Child A. They found no evidence of wrongdoing or misconduct by the force.
Vince Clark, West Sussex County Council’s interim executive director of children, young people and learning, said: “We acknowledge the findings of the inquest and the coroner’s conclusions, which we will reflect upon as we move forward.”
James Thomas, chief executive of Birmingham Children’s Trust, said: “We have already acted on the lessons learnt… As a result, our processes have been strengthened, including how information is shared with other statutory agencies when children move out of our area.”
