CCTV captures moment that will haunt mum for the rest of her life

A mum has described the terrifying moment her son jumped onto the tracks at Liverpool Central Station and how a 'hero' security guard saved both of their lives.

CCTV footage of the horrifying incident was widely shared on social media and caused widespread rumour. In an exclusive interview with the Liverpool ECHO, mum Jennifer Boyle said she wants to tell her story and provide context to what she describes as the 'worst moment of my life'.

Monday February 12 started much like any other day. Jennifer had been up for most of the night caring for her son, Lee and was focused on getting through another difficult day.

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Lee is a fun-loving 14-year-old boy who has special educational needs and disabilities. He is non-verbal, double incontinent and has no sense of danger. More recently, he has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and epilepsy.

Recalling the scene at central station, Jennifer said: "I've gone over and over what happened that day but don't know what I could have done differently.

"At the time, he was not able to access education and was increasingly isolated from the community. That morning he was very stressed so I decided to take him on the train to town because he loves McDonald's and he loves trains."

However, what happened next will haunt Jennifer for the rest of her life.

After arriving on the platform at Central station, Lee bolted up from his wheelchair and launched himself onto the tracks.

In the CCTV footage Jennifer can be seen pushing her son Lee into the station in a wheelchair. She briefly stops on the platform at which point her son Lee, in a blue coat, can be seen standing up immediately from his chair and jumping on to the platform. His clearly distressed mum can be seen with her arm outstretched trying to grab him, before running to the platform edge and hanging over the side to try and grab her son to safety. She is then joined by a number of people, including a security guard in a hi-vis jacket who run to help.

She said: "I was just freaking out. One of the lines was live so I'll be forever grateful to the security guard because if my son had put his foot on that rail it would have taken us all out. I remember the moment I had to let go of my son to let the guard take over because he was stronger - it was sheer panic.

"If it wasn't for the guard, then me and my son wouldn't be here now. Afterwards, Lee didn't understand what had happened and was still wanting to go on the train for his trip."

Jennifer is very clear on Lee's motivation for jumping on the tracks and she said it wasn't an attempt to take his own life. The mum-of-two wants people to know the complexities behind Lee's actions and also how they were more symptomatic of problems associated with his condition and the accumulated strain of not being able to access vital support systems.

She said: "My son is non-verbal so he has no way of communicating his frustration and fear so this presents in increasingly harmful and impulsive behaviours.

"It's a difficult thing for me to say, but every day is a struggle to keep my child safe in the community."

From a very young age, Jennifer was concerned about her son's development and was eventually told Lee had a chromosome duplication. Due to his condition he suffers with developmental delay, intellectual disability and behavioural problems among other issues.

Jennifer claims she was told by a health visitor that he concerns with her son were "all in her head" and she was imagining problems.

She added: "Like so many things that happened later, it was always a case of me being told I was wrong, battling to be heard and then getting services to accept there was actually an issue needing to be addressed."

The latest raft of problems began for Jennifer in September 2022 when Sefton's SEN Transport scheme withdrew Lee's single occupancy entitlement for taxi journeys to school. Jennifer informed the local authority Lee was unable to travel with other pupils - something which was acknowledged in his risk assessment.

Jennifer believes this situation constituted one example of many in which Lee was not given the support he needs - resulting in him becoming depressed and vulnerable to engaging in impulsive actions, such as at Central station. She said: "Things build up and reach crisis point. Lee is non-verbal so can't communicate his frustration and his hurt. He can't say what's wrong so that all comes out in other ways."

As a whole, the picture painted by Jennifer is one of frustration due to Lee's wellbeing and his access to education and social activities being overlooked.

Presently, Jennifer is still struggling to get Lee to go to school and claims he has been without education and his daily routine for the last six weeks. She said: "My fear is seeing this situation becoming worse which has a big impact on his mental state and I'm just terrified of what could happen."

Despite everything that has happened, Jennifer is still very complimentary about Sefton's children's services as a whole and praises the family's current social worker who is looking to resolve the transport issues and also provide the family with some respite care. At the moment, Jennifer's only 'respite' is going to work for a few hours a week.

Asked how she copes, Jennifer said: "I just go into survival mode. My hackles are always up because I'm scared of what will happen next, what battles I'll have to fight to keep my son safe."

Jennifer said she would like to see an overhaul of Sefton Council's complaints process and has called on them to value parent knowledge and work with them more to find the best solutions for their children. She said: "We are all human and we make mistakes - my self included - but it's important to admit them and learn from them and try not to repeat them."

Responding to some of the issues raised, a Sefton Council spokesperson said: “Sefton Council doesn’t comment on the details of individual cases but what we can say is that we are committed to improving access to Special Educational Needs places.

“The Council is creating more than 100 new school places for children with Special Educational Needs that will mean those children can go to school locally.

“Places will be across both primary and secondary settings and allow for children with Special Educational Needs to attend mainstream locally and be supported in that environment where they can thrive.”

Merseyrail also commended the actions of security guard Jamie who sprung into action at Liverpool Central.

Suzanne Grant, deputy managing director at Merseyrail said: “We are really proud of Jamie’s actions on the day in supporting one of our customers who needed help. We’d also like to say thank you to Jennifer for her kind words which have been shared with Jamie.”

A spokesperson for Carlisle Support Service who employ Jamie said: "The sign of a good security officer is one that acts instantly in the time of a crisis and Jamie epitomises that."

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