Parents of boy whose outbursts left them fearing for their lives say Adolescence ‘touched a nerve’
A teenager suddenly becomes violent, his anger towards women fuelled by online influencers, while his parents struggle to process what their son is capable of.
Does this sound familiar?
It’s the story of the hit drama Adolescence – but for Jess and Rob, it’s their life.
Their 14-year-old son Harry’s violence has escalated so rapidly he’s had to be taken into care. We’ve changed all their names to protect their identities.
Until the age of 12, Harry’s parents say he was a “wonderful” son. But they saw a change in his personality, which they believe was sparked by an incident when he was hit by a girl. Soon, he developed an online interest in masculine power and control.
Harry’s personality changed after he was assaulted (this image shows an actor in a Sky News reconstruction)
“Harry became obsessed with being strong, and I think he developed a difficulty around certain female people because of the assault,” Jess says.
“He had to be in charge… in every setting,” Rob adds.
Then one night, he punched his mother, Jess. His parents called the police in the hope it would shock him out of doing it again. But, as time went on, the violence escalated.
“We probably must have called the police over 100 times,” Rob says.
One attack was so serious, Jess ended up in hospital. The violence spilled outside the home too as Harry assaulted neighbours and friends.
Then he threatened to stab a teacher.
“Every time we think it can’t get any worse, something else happens and it does get worse,” Rob says. “Unfortunately, him getting hold of a knife is quite likely to happen.”
They say Adolescence, which stars Stephen Graham, Ashley Walters and Owen Cooper, touched a nerve.
Jess and Rob say they called the police 100 times (this image shows actors in a Sky News reconstruction)
“My worst fear is that he’s going to end up killing one of us,” says Jess. “If not us, then somebody else…”
It’s a shocking thought for any parent to have. As well as contacting police, the family have tried many times to get help from social services and the NHS for Harry’s deteriorating mental health.
“We’ve been told that we’re using too many resources and accessing too many services,” Rob says. “We tried for 18 months to get him more intensive therapeutic help. At every turn it was ‘no, no, no’.”
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They have found help with an organisation called PEGS that supports parents who are victims of their own children’s violence.
PEGS founder Michelle John says many families struggle to have their concerns taken seriously
Last year it was contacted by over 3,500 families, a 70% increase on 2023. Founder Michelle John says many families struggle to have their concerns taken seriously.
“What we’re hearing time and time again is that referrals are not being picked up because thresholds aren’t being met and perhaps the parent or caregiver isn’t a risk to the child,” she says. “Families are falling through gaps.”
In some parts of the country, local organisations are attempting to fill those gaps. Bright Star Boxing Academy in Shropshire has children referred by schools, social workers and even the police.
Joe Lockley, who runs the academy, says the problem is services that deal with youth violence are “inundated”.
“The biggest cause of the violent behaviour is mental health,” he says. “They lack that sense of belonging and control, and it’s quite easy to gain that from the wrong crowd and getting involved in violence.
“Social media is having a huge impact, especially around that young person’s identity.”
Ethan at the Bright Star Boxing Academy
Ethan, 18, agrees. He joined the academy aged 14. By then he had already been arrested several times for getting into fights.
He believes bullying sparked anxiety and depression. “Someone could look at me, I’d be angry,” he says.
“Social media – that’s definitely a massive part. You’ve got so many people that are living this material life. They’ve got loads of money.
“My main thing was seeing people with amazing bodies – I felt I couldn’t reach that point and it made me self-conscious, which would add on to the anger which then turned to hatred towards other people.”
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Without the support of the boxing academy, he believes, he wouldn’t have been able to turn his life around.
“I would either be in prison or I would have done something a lot worse to myself,” he says.
“It’s just this massive mess in your head where you’ve got a million thoughts at once – you don’t know what to think or how to even speak sometimes,” he adds.
“All we need is someone that’s got the time for us… and the understanding that it’s a war in our heads.”
A government spokesperson told Sky News: “We have seen too many preventable tragedies caused by the failings of mental health services, and it’s unacceptable that young people have not been getting the care and treatment they need to keep them, their families and the wider public safe.
“We are working to ensure children and their families get that help. We are investing over £50m to fund specialist support in schools, launching a Young Futures hub in every community, and providing access to a specialist mental health professional in every school in England.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
Merseyside Police knows – better than any force, perhaps – that in a social media age, an information vacuum can become a misinformation cauldron.
They have learnt from the aftermath of the Southport stabbing attack, where the force was criticised for being too slow to release information that could have calmed the riots that followed.
So, it feels like things have been done differently this time.
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Police tents surrounded by debris at the scene in Water Street. Pic: PA
The incident happened just after 6pm on Monday.
Videos – captured by fans on their phones – were online within moments. Shared and speculated upon, with guesses as to the attacker’s identity and motive.
But alongside the huge and immediate police investigation, the communication machine moved equally fast.
Within a few hours, police released a description of the man they had arrested – a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area.
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Moment car drives into crowds in Liverpool
A few hours after that, we had an extensive press conference during which police ruled out terrorism as a motive.
Again, they appealed for videos not to be shared online and for people not to speculate.
Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said Merseyside Police “handled the situation fantastically” given how quickly footage of the incident was shared online.
He told Sky News that online misinformation can set “a lot of false narrative”.
The mayor added: “And we all know that speculation and social media are a wildfire of different vantages, and some of it is for nefarious reasons.
“So, it was right, of course, that the police reacted as quickly as they did to dampen down some of the types of posts that we were witnessing, you know, saying that there were other things happening throughout the city.”
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‘These were utterly tragic scenes’
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Police commentator Graham Wettone also told Sky News the force had done well to quickly combat misinformation spreading online.
He said: “That’s always a problem in today’s day and age, social media taking over so much news reporting, with so many people as well present at the scene where that awful incident took place, mobile phones out, people recording it, and then posting it almost straight away.”
Dal Babu, a former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent, also highlighted it was “unprecedented” that the force “very quickly” gave the ethnicity and race of the suspect.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: “I think that was to dampen down some of the speculation from the far-right that sort of continues on X even as we speak that this was a Muslim extremist and there’s a conspiracy theory.”
Mr Babu agreed that Merseyside Police appears to have learned lessons from what happened after the Southport stabbings.
He added: “The difficulty we have is in the olden days, when I was policing, you would have a conversation with trusty journalists, print journalists, radio journalists, broadcasting journalists, you’d have a conversation and say look can you please hold fire on sharing this information and people would listen.
“We don’t have that with social media, it’s like the Wild West and anything goes and so puts the police in a very, very difficult position.”
Meanwhile, the police investigation continues.
In central Liverpool, Water Street is cordoned off with police officers and vehicles in place.
Flags, sprays of paint flares and empty bottles still cover the road. Whereas they have been cleared elsewhere along the parade route, here they remain. Chilling symbols of the party, that within moments became a scene of utter horror.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are being urged to use their visit to Canada to seek an apology for the abuse of British children.
Campaigners have called on them to pursue an apology for the “dire circumstances” suffered by so-called “Home Children” over decades.
More than 100,000 were shipped from orphan homes in the UK to Canada between 1869 and 1948 with many used as cheap labour, typically as farm workers and domestic servants. Many were subject to mistreatment and abuse.
Canada has resisted calls to follow the UK and Australia in apologising for its involvement in child migrant schemes.
King Charles and Mark Carney on Monday. Pic: PA
Campaigners for the Home Children say the royal visit presents a “great opportunity” for a change of heart.
“I would ask that King Charles uses his trip to request an apology,” John Jefkins told Sky News.
John’s father Bert was one of 115,000 British Home Children transported to Canada, arriving in 1914 with his brother Reggie.
“It’s really important for the Home Children themselves and for their descendants,” John said.
“It’s something we deserve and it’s really important for the healing process, as well as building awareness of the experience of the Home Children.
“They were treated very, very badly by the Canadian government at the time. A lot of them were abused, they were treated horribly. They were second-class citizens, lepers in a way.”
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John Jefkins
John added: “I think the King’s visit provides a great opportunity to reinforce our campaign and to pursue an apology because we’re part of the Commonwealth and King Charles is a new Head of the Commonwealth meeting a new Canadian prime minister. It’s a chance, for both, to look at the situation with a fresh eye.
“There’s much about this visit that looks on our sovereignty and who we are as Canadians, rightly so.
“I think it’s also right that in contemplating the country we built, we focus on the people who built it, many in the most trying of circumstances.”
The issue was addressed by the then Prince of Wales during a tour of Canada in May 2022. He said at the time: “We must find new ways to come to terms with the darker and more difficult aspects of the past.”
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King Charles and Queen Camilla are on a two-day visit to Canada.
On Tuesday, the King will deliver the Speech from the Throne to open the 45th session of Canada’s parliament.
Camilla was made Patron of Barnardo’s in 2016. The organisation sent tens of thousands of Home Children to Canada. She took on the role, having served as president since 2007.
Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.
A spokesperson for the Canadian government said: “The government of Canada is committed to keeping the memory of the British Home Children alive.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada deeply regrets this unjust and discriminatory policy, which was in place from 1869 to 1948. Such an approach would have no place in modern Canada, and we must learn from past mistakes.”
Ministers are considering scrapping the two-child benefit cap, the education secretary told Sky News.
Bridget Phillipson, asked by Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast if the cap should be lifted, said: “It’s not off the table.
“It’s certainly something that we’re considering.”
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The policy means most families cannot claim means-tested benefits for more than their first two children born after April 2017.
Ms Phillipson’s comments are the strongest a minister has made about the policy potentially being scrapped.
Analysis by The Resolution Foundation thinktank over the weekend found 470,000 children would be lifted out of poverty if parents could claim benefits for more than two children.
However, Ms Phillipson said the government inherited a “really difficult situation” with public finances from the Conservative government.
“These are not easy or straightforward choices in terms of how we stack it up, but we know the damage child poverty causes,” she added.
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Why did Labour delay their child poverty strategy?
The education secretary, who is also head of the government’s child poverty taskforce, said ministers are trying to help in other ways, such as expanding funded childcare hours and opening free breakfast clubs.
She said it is “the moral purpose of Labour governments to ensure that everyone, no matter their background, can get on in life”.
Her “personal mission” is to tackle child poverty, she said.
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Sir Keir Starmer is said to have privately backed abolishing the two-child limit and requested the Treasury find the £3.5bn to do so, The Observer reported on Sunday.
The government’s child poverty strategy, which the taskforce is working on, has been delayed from its original publication date in the spring.
Whether to scrap the two-child benefit cap is one of the main issues it is looking at.
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