A man was found dead in his home two months after he was last seen. Lee Purkis, 54, was found in his Crawley home on March 9, 2023, having not been seen since January of the same year. Mr Purkis, a DJ who performed under the name In Sync, was one of the earliest British DJs to play house and techno music , music publication NME reported.
He opened the FatCat Records shop in Crawley in 1989 which now operates as a record label. A report now suggests a communication breakdown between two NHS trusts may have contributed to his death. Mr Purkis had been subject to a court order which required him to get mental health treatment.
But he was discharged from the care of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust before his death as they did not know about the order. Now, West Sussex assistant coroner Nick Armstrong KC has warned that court orders “will be undermined” if similar breakdowns were to happen again. An inquest into Mr Purkis's death, held in June 2024, heard that he was being treated by Surrey and Borders NHS Foundation Trust shortly before his death but his care was transferred to Sussex Partnership when he moved home.
It also heard that Surrey and Borders failed to tell Sussex Partnership about the mental health treatment requirement (MHTR) in his community order and what it required. The assistant coroner concluded that Mr Purkis's cause of death could not be ascertained. In a Prevention of Future Deaths Report, Mr Armstrong said: “My concern here is that Lee Purkis had been, in the period leading up to his death, the subject of a mental health treatment requirement (MHTR) imposed by the Crown Court as part of a community order, but the Trust that ended up treating him were not aware of it and discharged him from its care without learning about it.
“There is no evidence that it made any difference in this case but that is because of the particular and unfortunate circumstances of how long it took to find Mr Purkis. “The use of MHTRs is, it seems to me on the evidence, to be encouraged, but that objective will be undermined if they are not understood and administered properly and so people don’t see them working.” Mr Armstrong noted that the issue was an "error" from the NHS trust but noted that the probation service had the remit to make the changes required.
In the report, sent to the Probation Service, Mr Armstrong recommended that the service take action to make sure that NHS trusts are informed about mental health treatment requirements. The probation service are required to respond to the concerns in the report. Neither NHS trust is required to respond.
A spokesman for the service offered their condolences to Mr Purkis’s family, adding: “We have reviewed and improved how we share information with healthcare practitioners to ensure better co-ordination of court orders and the management of offenders.” Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Surrey and Borders NHS Foundation Trust were both declined to comment when approached..
