Kibble bosses slammed after boy’s suicide

BOSSES at a Paisley care home have been criticised after a 13-year-old boy hanged himself in his bedroom.

Sheriff Neil Douglas expressed concerns over events at the Kibble Education and Care Centre prior to tragic schoolboy Bryan Ross taking his own life.

Bryan, who was one of the youngest residents at Kibble, used his dressing gown to hang himself – just two months after staff there discovered he had hidden a cord in his room.

Following a Fatal Accident Inquiry, Sheriff Douglas has now ruled that the care home’s ability to deal with the original discovery “lacked structure” and that the find was not “fully or formally assessed.”

He also stated that Bryan should not have been allowed to be locked in his room while wearing a dressing gown.

And Sheriff Douglas added that he wasn’t satisfied with the evidence provided by Kibble supervisor Alan Scott on the night of the death as he was “not prepared to find what he said as established.”

However, the lawman failed to make any determinations suggesting any reasonable precautions which could have been taken to prevent Bryan’s death.

Bryan was admitted to the Kibble home in March 2009 after he was involved in a wilful fireraising incident.

The FAI into his death, which happened in July that year, heard how staff were stunned when he was found hanging in his room in the home’s Barra Unit.

Bryan had previously threatened to kill himself by walking out in front of traffic on a motorway.

He had also demonstrated self-harming tendencies at a previous care home he stayed at by putting a ligature round his neck in front of a member of staff.

The night before he died, Bryan had thrown a bottle of water at a member of Kibble staff and a ‘restraint’ technique was used on him. The television from his room was also confiscated.

Sheriff Douglas ruled that the decision to allow Bryan to have a dressing gown in his room was a factor in his death.

He said: “It is axiomatic that, had the dressing gown not been in the room, it could not have been used as a ligature, as it was.”

However, the Sheriff added: “It is impossible to know if there would have been a death had there been no dressing gown present.”

The Care Commission carried out an investigation into Bryan’s death and made a number of recommendations for Kibble bosses to follow.

These included staff being made fully aware of the protocol for the level of observation required and of what to do when an item of concern is found.

In Bryan’s case, the discovery of the ligature two months earlier was not passed on to all members of staff and the man in charge of the teenager on the night he died was “unaware” of it.

Last night, a Kibble spokesman described Bryan’s death as “a tragic incident” and said their thoughts are with his family.

He added: “Incidents of this nature at Kibble are, thankfully, rare and the care of boys here is paramount.

“Following the Fatal Accident Inquiry, the Sheriff’s determination said there were ‘no reasonable precautions whereby the death might have been avoided’ and there were ‘no defects in any system of working which contributed to the death.’

“The FAI report also described the item found in Bryan’s room two months prior to the tragic incident as a cord-like item, about six inches long, which was too small to have been used as a ligature.

“At the time, Kibble management ordered closer monitoring of Bryan but there was no further behavioural patterns that suggested he may have been depressed or suicidal.

“The Sheriff also found that there were no signs to indicate Bryan was contemplating suicide on the day of the incident.

“Any recommendations made by the Care Commission with reference to our operating procedures have already been carried out.”