Schoolboy at £48,000-a-year faculty stabbed his mom to loss of life after being ‘triggered’ by her being ‘overly affectionate’, inquest hears

A schoolboy stabbed his mother to death on the way to his prestigious £48,000-a-year boarding school before placing himself in front of a train to die by suicide, an inquest has heard.

Witnesses told how introverted Julian Bracken, 18, had appeared to be ‘triggered’ by his ‘overly affectionate’ mother Mayawati Bracken, 56.

The inquest heard how a row over stuffing at Christmas lunch last year led to the video-game loving student having a panic attack at the family’s £2million Pangbourne home. Paramedics who attended felt there ‘was a lot of built up anger between them’.

Just ten days later on January 4, Bracken then stabbed his mother as she drove him to Radley College in Oxfordshire, where he was a student.

Mrs Bracken lost control of her Lexus and was found dead with a stab wound to the chest inside the vehicle by members of the public on the A340 Tidmarsh Road at the junction of Flower Hill, Reading Coroner’s Court heard today.

Her son walked directly from the car and placed himself in front of a high-speed train at Pangbourne station in Berkshire.

Today, the senior coroner for Berkshire ruled Bracken would have been found guilty of either murder or manslaughter had he lived.

South Central Ambulance Service paramedic Chris Dinse, who was called to the family home on Christmas Day last year, told the inquest that he was warned by Bracken’s siblings that there was smashed glass on the marble floor of the property.

He said Bracken’s sister had informed him a dispute had taken place over Christmas dinner, ‘something to do with stuffing’ and had described it as ‘just family stuff’.

‘Julian said, “f***ing mum”,’ Mr Dinsey recalled. ‘I could tell when he said this there was a lot of built up anger between them. This was clearly a fraught relationship. This did not build up, it just went straight to the top level.’

The paramedic described how Bracken’s mother had returned to the kitchen and tried to get to her son and give him a kiss.

‘She was being overly affectionate’, the paramedic told the inquest. ‘It seemed like quite an overpowering dynamic from her.’

Mr Dinsey recalled how the presence of Bracken’s mother ‘riled him up’ and told how the deceased’s siblings had ushered his mother away.

‘It was quite obvious what the trigger was, it seemed as if it had happened before’, Mr Dinsey remarked.

The inquest heard how, the following day, Bracken had contacted NHS talking services and reported he had suffered a ‘panic attack where my hands and legs seized up.’ Appointments were offered to him but the dates were after his death.

On the day of the mother and son’s deaths, the senior coroner for Berkshire Heidi Connor said Mrs Bracken had taken a photograph of her children painting and said ‘this appeared to be a normal day in the family home’.

CCTV footage from the family home shows Bracken and his mother leaving their property at just before 5.45pm on the day of their deaths.

But detectives have since learned that Bracken’s sister Jessica now believes Bracken had concealed a kitchen knife in his backpack before getting into the family Lexus with his mother.

Detective Inspector Stuart May, a senior investigator with Thames Valley Police, said: ‘She describes Julian leaving and she says she went to put something in his rucksack, but he would not allow her to do that,

‘So on reflection she has considered whether he had the knife in the rucksack and that being the reason he did not want her to look inside.’

Police then received phone calls just two minutes later which reported a vehicle rolling down a hill and coming to rest in traffic. A man was seen walking away from the vehicle carrying a knife.

Ambulance and police arrived on the scene just a few minutes later and discovered Mrs Bracken, dead. At 5.50pm, TVP received a call from British Transport Police to report a person had been hit by a train at Pangbourne station.

An investigation revealed Bracken had made the 15 minute walk from Flower Hill directly to the station and had placed himself in the path of a high-speed train.

The coroner was told Bracken had no previous contact with the police and no GP or other health records of significance, nor had he been taking any medication which led to mental health issues.

Heidi Connor, the senior coroner for Berkshire, said a number of pupils at the school had been interviewed. ‘They suggest he was a fairly quiet young man, family introverted, liked his gaming, none of them raised anything of particular concern about mental health, family problems, drug or alcohol abuse.’

A phone was discovered at Pangbourne station, but police have not yet been able to gain access to it. ‘We are still trying’, DI May told the coroner.

An iPad, USB stick and PS4 belonging to the deceased had all also been examined and had revealed no planning or note from Bracken.

DI May told the coroner: ‘It is fair to say from our investigations, we have a detailed understanding of what happened, unfortunately we have not been able to ascertain any reason as to why it took place.’

Concluding the inquest, Mrs Connor ruled that Mrs Bracken had died by ‘unlawful killing’, which covers both murder and manslaughter.

Summarising the evidence, Mrs Connor said: ‘The events of January 4 this year are tragic but clear. It would appear Mrs Bracken intended to take Julian back to college in the early evening on January 4.

‘Early on in that journey, it appears Julian used a knife from the family home to stab his mother, which caused her to lose control of the vehicle. It moved slowly down to the road and came to a stop.’

Mrs Connor concluded that when Bracken had placed himself in front of a high-speed train at Pangbourne station, he had done so intending to end his life and died by ‘suicide’.

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