A private school pupil who switched genders strangled his mother and stabbed her 118 times before making a chilling 999 call to tell police ‘bring a body-bag’, an inquest heard today.
Rowan Thompson was visiting his mother Joanna Thompson and the pair had just returned for a morning jog when the 17 year old attacked her in her village home.
Mrs Thompson, 50, was strangled to unconsciousness in their living room by Thompson and ’10 or 15 minutes later’ he returned to brutally stab her 38 times to the forehead, 64 times to the neck, and 16 times to the arm.
At 12.45pm on July 1 last year, Thompson called 999 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’.
The police officer who arrested Thompson at the home in Hambledon, Hampshire, said the teenager was ‘extremely calm and composed’ and ‘seemed to be more concerned about his cat’.
In October, Thompson was found dead aged 18 while in custody at a secure mental health facility – just four days before he was due to stand trial accused of murdering his mother.
Today an inquest into the death of speech therapist Mrs Thompson heard Thompson had been visiting her for the weekend, having recently moved to live with his father, who is a magician, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
It was heard Thompson and his mother had ‘stressful’ conversations about his living arrangements on the night before her death and he felt she was ‘controlling and over-bearing’.
Thompson, who became gender-less and changed his name from Ben, had previously been admitted to mental health hospitals following a suicide attempt and suffered depressive bouts.
He told police he felt ‘strange’ while returning from jogging with his mother, was on ‘auto-pilot’, and ‘could not remember anything’ until he arrived at the police station.
He said: ‘I’ve just killed my mum. I need someone to arrest me as that’s what you do and an ambulance would be nice.
‘I strangled her and I’ve been stabbing her with various knives and whatnot. My younger brother is at school, he’s due back later tonight.’
He added: ‘She’s not breathing… bring a body-bag or whatever you do. I’m 99.9 per cent sure she’s not breathing.
‘I started strangling her, she fell to the floor. I strangled her a bit more and stopped… then I kept my hands around her.
‘Then I started stabbing her and whatnot… She’s in the living room.’
He cheerfully added: ‘I’m down for the weekend, I had a meal and went to the cinema with my best friends which was really nice.’
He also told the 999 operator he ‘put the knives in the dishwasher just in case’ and after he was arrested on suspicion of murder, he told police ‘think it’s a bit more than suspicion’.
Sophie Rugge-Price, Mrs Thompson’s sister, said Thompson moved to live with his magician father Marc Thompson in Barnsley to help his mental health.
She said: ‘In the last couple of years Rowan was showing signs of being depressed and showing suicidal tendencies, he had to be admitted to hospital.
In October, Thompson was found dead aged 18 while in custody at a secure mental health facility – just four days before he was due to stand trial accused of murdering his mother
Heavy lunatic ???