A HAPPY family album shows a little boy full of smiles as he cooks with his mum, captains a boat and enjoys a trip to the seaside. 

With a loving middle-class background and privileged private education, Rowan Thompson should have had a bright future.

But in July 2019, aged 17 Rowan inexplicably strangled mum Joanna in her front room before returning to stab her 118 times in a senseless attack.

He then calmly dialled 999 and told police: “Bring a body bag.”

In a terrible twist of fate, Rowan died before he could reveal answers to the murder that shocked the tiny, picturesque village of Hambledon, Hampshire, known as the cradle of cricket.

He died in a mental health unit after staff at Salford Royal Hospital failed to pass on blood test results which showed Rowan’s potassium levels were dangerously low. 

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Today grieving dad Marc tells The Sun he forgives his son – and slams Britain’s failing mental health services.

He says: “There’s nothing to forgive Rowan for. He was very ill when he killed his mother and he needed support and help.

"He had no idea what he was doing, and he was filled with remorse and grief following her death.

"He was in a unit where he should have been receiving specialist support. But he died needlessly.

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"If the blood test results had been addressed, Rowan would have been admitted to hospital for urgent treatment and the likelihood is my son would still be alive today.

"He was failed catastrophically by the very people who should have been caring for him."

'I've just killed my mum'

Rowan’s parents Marc, 53, and speech therapist Joanna, 50, split when he was 11.

He moved out of his mum’s into his dad’s home in Barnsley, South Yorks, a year before the killing, following tension between him and Joanna.

Rowan returned to see Joanna for his 17th birthday – but after the pair went out for a run, he strangled her unconscious in the living room.

An inquest heard how he returned "10 or 15 minutes later" to repeatedly stab her in the neck, forehead and arm. 

He then called police in a "calm, unemotional and quite ordinary manner" and said: “I’ve just killed my mum… I strangled her and I’ve been stabbing her with various knives and whatnot.”

I’ve just killed my mum… I strangled her and I’ve been stabbing her with various knives and whatnot

Children’s entertainer Marc today struggles to make sense of the killing, but is also grieving deeply for his eldest child.

A coroner’s court last month heard how Rowan would have likely survived with hospital treatment had communication between the hospital and mental health unit not broken down.

Talking about the moment police called to tell him the devastating news, Marc admits: “I was in total shock.

“I couldn’t believe what I was being told. Rowan was not violent and never had been.

"He clashed a lot with his mum but he was never aggressive.”

Missed chances to save mum's life

As he grapples with his new reality, Marc recounts Rowan’s happy childhood as part of a "normal happy family".

"I was a stay-at-home dad and so I did the school runs and the child care," he says.

"Rowan was a happy kid, he loved climbing and fencing. He had a very dry sense of humour. He loved Spike Milligan. He was a little bit geeky, something he was conscious of.”

Mark says he can pinpoint the moment Rowan started having problems – aged 14, after a relative took their own life.

Six weeks on Rowan, who was born Ben, tried to take his own life and revealed he was being bullied at school. 

He was admitted to the Priory and afterwards came out as non-binary, changing his name from Ben to Rowan.

Marc says: "Rowan began wearing nail varnish and dyed his hair. He was finding himself. He was really upbeat, he was a unique child and I was very supportive of him.

We will never know what happened to make Rowan snap the way he did

“He didn’t attempt suicide again, but did start self-harming and had some more psychiatric care before he came to live with me.”

Marc said there was no hint of what was about to unfold when Rowan went to see his mum.

The only hint of a possible motive came at Joanna’s inquest in December 2020, which heard she had been “walking on eggshells” around her son. 

The hearing heard how the pair had a "stressful" relationship because he felt she was "overbearing". 

Marc says: “We will never know what happened to make Rowan snap the way he did.

"It is my belief they had some sort of argument regarding his mother wanting to enroll him at a college near where she lived.

"Rowan was clearly very unwell and this hadn’t been picked up, despite his previous psychiatric assessments.”

No answers

After the killing Rowan was sectioned and later diagnosed with autism. 

He was admitted to the adolescent mental health Gardener Unit at Prestwich Hospital, and charged with murder nine months later.

Mark says: "Rowan was sectioned and I visited three or four times a week. He attended college at the unit and studied three A-Levels. 

"He had a lot of anxiety about what he had done. But he was also very positive about getting better and he engaged with the staff and with his teachers.  

"He didn’t remember the attack on his mother, but he was filled with grief.

"From the moment he was arrested I was never allowed to be alone with Rowan.

From the moment he was arrested I was never allowed to be alone with Rowan. I could never ask him why he'd done what he'd done

"I could never ask him why he'd done what he'd done because it would be used in court. I never got that chance to ask him."

He adds: "I had concerns about the unit. There were not enough staff, my time with my son was restricted, and I felt my complaints were not being properly addressed.

"I didn’t feel Rowan’s needs were being met. Even something simple, like me taking a protein bar in for him, was not always permitted.

"Communication between me and the staff, and also between the staff, was poor." 

Missed opportunity

Rowan started losing weight and in October 2020 staff at the unit took blood tests, which were sent to Salford Hospital.

Results showed he was suffering from 'severe hypokalemia', a condition that causes low potassium levels in the blood.

The inquest heard the results should have been communicated verbally within two hours.

But incredibly, no one from Salford Hospital called Rowan’s doctors to make them aware of the results because they held an defunct phone number.

Numbers held by the hospital for Gardener were out of date, and an email address given by the Prestwich site switchboard was for Skype voice messages.

Staff also failed to check on Rowan every 15 minutes and falsified records.

A coroner’s jury found his treatment surrounding the blood tests amounted to ‘neglect’.

Three young people have died at the Prestwich site in less than a year and an independent review is underway, the results of which are due to be published later this month.

But the families feel it will not go far enough.

Marc said: "Rowan should have been admitted to hospital for urgent treatment. He, and other young people, are being failed by the very services which are there to protect them.

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"Mental health provision for young people ought to be a priority in our society.

“I will never get the answers I need. But I have to look to the future and by speaking out I hope that things will change for other families and other children in need.”

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