Jan Neate, whose son Jake has been held at Rampton high-security hospital in Nottinghamshire for eight years, says the facility is anything but “cushy”. Speaking after the transfer of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana to Broadmoor hospital prompted complaints that he was getting off lightly, Neate described visiting her son as “an ordeal”.
“I get really upset going there,” she said. “Even though I really want to see Jake, visiting is an ordeal.” Jake, 45, was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial after killing his partner, Suzanne Brown, in 2017, years after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Life inside a high-security hospital
England has three high-security hospitals – Rampton, Ashworth in Merseyside and Broadmoor in Berkshire. According to the NHS trust that manages Rampton, secure hospitals are for people with severe mental health disorders who pose grave or immediate danger to themselves or to the public. They have housed notorious criminals including Peter Sutcliffe, Ronnie Kray, Ian Brady, Ian Huntley and Beverley Allitt.
During visits, Neate has her fingerprints and biometrics taken before being escorted in. Jake is searched when he is brought into the room and again when he leaves. The pair are permitted a hug, which is often distressing. “Both of us usually cry when we hug,” said Neate. “It reminds me of what our lives were like before and I think it reminds Jake of that, too.”
Rudakubana's transfer and public reaction
The high-security hospitals came under scrutiny this year after it was reported that Rudakubana, who murdered three young girls at a dance class in Southport in 2024, had been moved from Belmarsh, a category A high-security prison, to Broadmoor, which has security equivalent to a category B prison. Officials said the move was due to the deterioration of his mental health and the fact he could no longer be safely managed in prison. The plan is to return him to Belmarsh after treatment.
Mark Fairhurst, the chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, said the move would afford Rudakubana freedoms not available in a high-security prison. Neate, however, wants people to understand the reality of this form of incarceration. Jake is sometimes placed in seclusion; Neate knows of at least two periods this year, each lasting several days. She is given very little information about what happens during these periods, which she says is terrifying: “I dread the phone ringing one day and staff telling me that something terrible has happened to him.”
Concerns over care and inspections
Inspections of Rampton by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) between July 2019 and June 2023 identified failings including a shortage of staff, with some therapy staff used on wards to plug gaps, leading to a reduction in patients’ therapeutic programmes. Concerns were also raised about overnight lock-ups being extended due to staff shortages, along with periods of “confinement” during the day. Poor medicine management and repeated safeguarding issues were identified.
A focused CQC review in March 2024 said staffing levels had improved and the use of confinement had decreased, but there remained a “culture of relying on therapy and education staff to cover nursing gaps”. The review added: “While we observed staff providing person-centred care, we remain concerned that people in long-term segregation were not always treated with dignity, compassion and respect.” In a May 2025 CQC report, the hospital’s rating was upgraded from “inadequate” to “requires improvement”.
Jake has been having seizures and injuring himself. “On one occasion, he fell and injured his shoulder when he was having a seizure,” said Neate. “On another occasion, also when he was thought to be having a seizure, he fell and injured his head.” He was taken to an ordinary hospital after these injuries, but Neate wasn’t given any information about where he was. Whenever she calls Rampton, she gets the briefest of replies – confirmation that he is eating, drinking and sleeping, but nothing else.
Jake's history and the killing of Suzanne Brown
As a boy, Jake was happy and playful, said Neate: “We went on loads of outings like swimming, football and visits to museums. He was a really nice boy.” At 17, he started to get ill and was admitted to hospital as a voluntary patient. He went on to study geography at the University of Birmingham, but left when he was headhunted by a bank in Canary Wharf. At 20, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He built up a window-cleaning round in Essex and was popular with his customers.
In 2007, Jake met Suzanne, known as Sue, at a disco in Harlow. She worked as a nursery nurse. “Sue had such a sweet, kind nature,” said Neate. “She really looked after Jake, made sure he took his medication and went to all his appointments with him. She was a very giving person. I miss her.” For 10 years, the drug clozapine kept Jake stable. But in 2017, after he started to experience physical side-effects, the drug was stopped suddenly.
Withdrawal from clozapine is supposed to be closely monitored, but Jake, Sue and Neate were unaware of this. “None of us had any idea what could happen as a result of him being taken off clozapine,” said Neate. Jake began to experience psychosis and repeatedly tried to seek help, but little was forthcoming. In texts to his mother, Jake said he had been researching private hospitals. “I feel a bit angry that no one told me of the implications of going on to this drug,” he wrote. “I would like to be an inpatient to deal with all the issues.”
On 15 December 2017, a mental health worker visited the couple’s flat and said telephone support would be put in place and a home visit organised for the following week. That evening, Neate received a call from Sue, “screaming and hysterical”. She said Jake was hurting her. Neate told her to get out of the flat and immediately called the police. Three hours later, police officers arrived at the flat. By then, Jake had stabbed Suzanne 173 times.
Jake was initially charged with murder, but was found to be unfit to stand trial. He said he had been hearing voices coming out of the TV urging him to kill Sue. A trial of the facts found that Jake had killed Sue. A report on mental health services after Sue’s killing identified eight failings and made seven recommendations for change. It found that an up-to-date risk assessment was not carried out after the sudden cessation of clozapine and that there was neither appropriate professional monitoring nor guidance for Jake and his family. An investigation for the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found that the police response was delayed because it was initially miscategorised by the call handler.
Future and family impact
Jake is held at Rampton on a section 37 order; the Home Office has to give permission for the release of those held under this type of indefinite hospital order. In a letter to Neate on 28 July 2026, Jake’s doctor at Rampton wrote: “In recent years we have seen several episodes of decline in his condition, but overall he is making progress.” He also described Jake as having a serious mental health disorder that is “very resistant to treatment”.
A spokesperson for Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS foundation trust said: “While we cannot comment on the care of individual patients, we fully understand that families want the very best for their loved ones and we recognise how difficult it can be when progress feels slow. We always welcome families raising concerns with us and are committed to working with them openly.”
Neate firmly believes Jake is deteriorating at Rampton. “Jake says he is fighting a battle between good and evil and says he has to rescue Sue,” she said. “He isn’t the same person he used to be … I don’t think he’s always treated as a human being, as a person. Everything is so clinical there.” She added: “I feel like I’m banging my head against a wall trying to help him. All I want for Jake is a life that’s reasonable, with some hope in it. People who are mentally ill are entitled to a bit of care. But I don’t believe Jake’s getting that. It’s not at all cushy or luxurious for him in Rampton, very far from it.”
