An autistic man who was killed after he was hit by a train at Princes Risborough station felt “abandoned” by mental health services, his father told an inquest this week.

Lewis Colgan, a keen gamer who lived in Lower Road, Hardwick, near Aylesbury, and is thought to have studied psychology in High Wycombe and Aylesbury, was pronounced dead at the scene on September 15 last year.

The court heard the 30-year-old's medication was not reviewed for 16 months.

This week his father Declan Colgan told Buckinghamshire Coroner’s Court, in Beaconsfield, said his son, who had high-functioning autism, severe anxiety, depression, dyspraxia and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), felt “frustrated” at “not being helped” by mental health services in 2017.

He said Lewis’ first suicide attempt came in 2009 following a false sexual assault allegation, which Declan said came as a “shock” to him and Lewis’ stepmother Denise.

He said: “He was very confused and didn’t know what was going on.”

Lewis, who was on propranolol, risperidone and pregabalin for his “cocktail” of conditions, started having regular appointments with Claire Smith, a care co-ordinator with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, which looks after mental health services in Bucks.

Declan said his son “got on” with Ms Smith and was “devastated” when she died in 2016, attending her funeral with other patients she had helped.

Following her death, he became withdrawn and had reached a “crisis point” in May that year, which was thankfully avoided.

He was then seen by support worker Chris Ward, who helped him to get out and about in Aylesbury, where he had previously felt “unsafe” due to being called a “freak” by some adults and youths as a result of his disability.

Ms Smith was then replaced by Heidi Ratcliffe, who started with the trust before the end of 2016. The court heard that it took her two months to contact Lewis to introduce herself and make an appointment with him, which was another two months later – making four months in total.

The court also heard that in the last four months of Lewis’ life, he had just two appointments with mental health services, with consultant psychiatrist Dr Welchew apologising to the family for the “decline” in Lewis’ care in 2017.

He said the service was “extremely short-staffed” at the time of Ms Smith’s death, which is why it took a while to replace her, and he was not sure why it had taken Ms Ratcliffe so long to make contact with Lewis after she had started.

Declan said on the day of Lewis’ death he was behaving “normally”, going into High Wycombe, which he “enjoyed” doing, to attend a course at the recovery college as well as look at new videogames and get a takeaway lunch, which he often did.

He said the family’s “world changed forever” when they found out about his death.

Train driver James Browne said by the time he spotted Lewis it was too late for him to stop, adding that Lewis was “less than a carriage-length” away.

Senior coroner Crispin Butler said he wanted to see the root cause analysis report from the trust before reaching a conclusion, and a further date of April 30 was set for this.