A CORONER recorded an open verdict after a young man fell from the footbridge at York Railway Station.

Passengers and paramedics fought for 40 minutes to save Luke Ashley Harris’ life on Platform 5 but were unsuccessful, an inquest heard.

York mental health nurse Isabel Taylor said she had assessed the 21-year-old as not at immediate risk to himself or anyone else less than three hours before his death.

She said she didn’t have access to his medical records in West Yorkshire.

Mr Harris’ mother Georgina Hall told the inquest he had a long history of mental illness, including psychosis and hallucinations.

She and his stepfather Frank McCandlish said they had contacted West Yorkshire mental health services and the police during the weekend before his death on Monday, December 16, 2019, because the family were concerned about him.

“The system doesn’t work,” said Mr McCandlish.

Medical witnesses told the inquest different parts of the NHS use different software to record patients’ medical details and this can prevent staff in one service with patient consent accessing notes recorded by staff in another service.

A report from pathologist Dr Craig Bratten said Mr Harris had taken MDMA in a quantity that may have affected him mentally.

Assistant coroner John Broadbridge said there was not enough evidence for him to know how much Mr Harris understood or intended the consequences of what he was doing and recorded a narrative conclusion without a specific finding.

Trainee engineer Mr Harris was living in sheltered housing in Batley, West Yorkshire, at the time of his death.

A British Transport Police (BTP) report into the death revealed that Mr Harris arrived at York at 4.05pm and wandered around the station and its taxi rank until 5.07pm when a shopworker drew police attention to him following an incident with a water bottle.

PC Aleksander Marinkovic of BTP told the Northallerton inquest Mr Harris claimed to him that he had stabbed someone in Leeds, but checks with West Yorkshire Police revealed this hadn’t happened, and he called in the York mental health triage team.

The BTP report said after Ms Taylor assessed him and police gave him a free train pass home, Mr Harris continued to wander around the station.

Signalman William Stockton said he saw Mr Harris behaving in a way he considered to be “messing about” on the footbridge at about 8pm. He walked past him and then heard a thud.

Nurse Jo Rhodes, travelling home to Scunthorpe with two other nurses, said they gave Mr Harris first aid until paramedics arrived and then assisted them.

Call Samaritans on 116 123.