The mother of a schizophrenic man who was killed when he stepped in front of a train has criticised the National Health Service for significant failings in the years before his death.

Joe Jensen, formerly from Boxley Road, Maidstone, died at Hildenborough Station, three days after going missing from his Brighton flat on Christmas Day.

On Monday an inquest at Gravesend Old Town Hall heard the 29-year-old bar supervisor had taken his own life after a long battle with mental illness.

Following Mr Jensen’s death an internal inquiry was launched into the handling of his case after it was revealed his mother, Jayne, attempted to get him sectioned twice.

Sussex early intervention team declined her request on both occasions.

Mr Jensen was sent to a psychiatric hospital in 2012 after he broke into a house he used to live in, but it was the police and not the mental health service who authorised the move.

"If you take your son to a hospital with a severed limb, he will be treated... to be repeatedly told he was fine was exceptionally difficult..." — Jayne Jensen

Mrs Jensen, 61, from Boxley Road, Maidstone, said: “They did not listen to either myself or my son when I tried to get him sectioned in 2010 and 2011.

"The decision to try and get Joe sent to a psychiatric hospital really broke me, it was impossibly difficult. I felt like they didn’t appreciate that and the fact I knew him and knew he wasn’t OK.

"If you take your son to a hospital with a severed limb, he will be treated. To me the signs of his illness were as obvious as that, so to be repeatedly told he was fine was exceptionally difficult.

“They didn’t ask for any background about his life and, due to privacy issues and the fact he was over 18, would not allow me to speak for him. The way it worked was bizarre.

“They even told him to consider moving out, something which really drove us apart.”

She added that within six months of receiving inpatient care he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, had been prescribed medication and was a changed person.

Last year Mr Jensen was making good progress — enrolling on to an Open University law degree, being accepted on to a supported housing scheme and writing poetry and stories — but was badly affected after losing his 39-year-old cousin Daniel Wiltshire to a brain haemorrhage in March.

Mrs Jensen said she was in no doubt her son had intended to take his life and respected his brave decision, but that it was a tragedy he did not get the help he needed sooner.

If you need confidential support on an emotional issue, call Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90 at any time.

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