Kirsten Coutts told an inquest that Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College failed her 18-year-old son, Sam Coutts, before he was found dead in the college toilets in Darlington in January. She said the college did not care appropriately and acceptably for him after a meeting on 13 January.
Sam had gone into that meeting already under strain. He had asked his mother whether the Reddit posts made him seem “creepy and weird”, and he had also told her he felt embarrassed and ashamed.
Sam Coutts and the meeting
The inquest heard that the college was aware Sam had autism and had assigned him a support worker. He was studying A-levels in psychology, applied science and biology, and hoped to read at York St John University.
Before 13 January, Kirsten Coutts spoke to the safeguarding lead and urged staff to treat him gently. She told the inquest that the college later contacted her after the support worker apparently found Reddit posts he had made about having a crush on her.
On 13 January, college bosses told Sam his support worker would be replaced. He was allowed to leave the meeting alone, and CCTV showed him go from the meeting to the toilets.
CCTV at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College
Three hours later, the college principal found his body in the toilets. The sequence left the inquest examining how a student known to be autistic, and already worried about change, was handled after the meeting.
That concern sits alongside Kirsten Coutts’s account that the college failed completely in its duty of care. The college’s account of its actions was not given in the material heard so far.
Crook inquest
Coroner Crispin Oliver heard the evidence at the inquest in Crook, County Durham. The death remains at the centre of that process, and the evidence already places the meeting, the support-worker change and the decision to let Sam leave alone under scrutiny.
The case now turns on why he was not kept with staff after that meeting and why he was not found sooner. Those are the unanswered points the inquest still has to work through.
