The immediate aftermath: the staff in the Calculus Office and the injury inflicted to Mr Hayes as he sought to assist

The immediate aftermath: the staff in the Calculus Office and the injury inflicted to Mr Hayes as he sought to assist

¶58. As I have set out above, Mr Jonathan Hayes was the head of Calculus Legal Costs Holdings. He was at work on the morning of the attack together with several other members of his costs team. As shown in Figures 3 and 4, above, the office was in the upstairs of the Norwood Business Centre, and the main entrance was to the right of the landing at the top of the communal stairs.

¶59. The other members of the Calculus staff present that morning were Mr Jonathan Cape,¹²⁹¹²⁹ MERP000068; MERP001429 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. Mr Joseph (Joe) Manning,¹³⁰¹³⁰ MERP001230 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. Mr Adam Martindale,¹³¹¹³¹ MERP000845 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. Mr Josh Davies¹³²¹³² MERP002292 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. and Mr Robby Feeney.¹³³¹³³ Initial account of Mr Feeney MERP001877 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. From their office, Mr Manning heard screaming but believed it was children playing in the car park. He was used to children screaming and playing related to classes in the Hart Space, and while this was louder than normal, it did not immediately arouse his suspicion. Mr Manning said that very shortly after this screaming noise had stopped, he had rolled a cigarette and was intending to go for a smoke downstairs in the car park. However, on stepping outside the Calculus offices he saw blood in the stairwell, and immediately retraced his steps, realising something was wrong. Mr Manning told his colleagues back inside the office what he had seen. He described how he and others in the office then looked out of the window and saw a girl lying on the ground. The girl on the ground can only have been Child C1. Mr Manning states that his colleague Mr Cape then called for an ambulance “straightaway”.

¶60. This account entirely tallies with the 999 call which Mr Cape made at 11:47:56, and which was transcribed as part of the police investigation.¹³⁴¹³⁴ MERP001371. Since it is evident from the CCTV footage that Child C1 collapsed outside at 11:47:12, the maximum time that elapsed between Mr Manning and Mr Cape seeing Child C1 prone on the floor and the 999 call was 44 seconds. It is understandable in the circumstances that Calculus staff mistook the screaming of girls in panic on the morning of the attack for the more usual type of screaming and playing emanating from the Hart Space. Moreover, Mr Cape’s 999 call appears to have been made promptly upon he and Mr Manning realising that something was seriously wrong. Objectively speaking (and without criticism of any of the Calculus staff), by the time the staff in the Calculus office did realise that something was seriously wrong, Alice, Bebe and Elsie had all already been fatally attacked, and the injuries to all of the child survivors as well as Ms Lucas had already been inflicted.

¶61. This account of Mr Manning and Mr Cape’s actions, and the timing of the 999 call, helps to put in sequence Mr Hayes’s own involvement and the timing of AR’s attack on Mr Hayes. For it was after Mr Cape had been connected on his 999 call, that Mr Manning then went to the far side of the office to inform Mr Hayes that something “really bad is happening outside” and that a girl (in fact Child C1) was “bleeding out”.¹³⁵¹³⁵ T/S: 10/63/25-65/22.

¶62. It was at this point that Mr Hayes, without delay, went to leave the Calculus office, running the length of the office to the exit, intending to go downstairs in order to assist.¹³⁶¹³⁶ T/S: 10/66/18-68/7. However, as he reached the door, Mr Hayes saw a young girl – most likely Bebe – lying on the ground on the landing. AR walked towards Mr Hayes and entered the Calculus office. He was holding a knife which Mr Hayes courageously attempted to grab. AR wounded him severely in the leg. Mr Hayes shouted out “Get him out” and fell to the floor. As Mr Martindale, one of Mr Hayes’s colleagues, came to assist, AR sprinted from the offices but then turned to face Mr Martindale. The latter ran to the office door which he was able to close, leaving AR on the landing.¹³⁷¹³⁷ MERP000845/4 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. Another employee at Calculus, Mr Davies, applied a tourniquet to Mr Hayes’ leg.¹³⁸¹³⁸ T/S: 10/69/17-20. Consistent with all of the above, the disturbance in the aftermath of Mr Hayes being stabbed is audible in the background in the audio recording of Mr Cape’s 999 call.

¶63. It follows from the above that Mr Hayes was the last of the survivors to be stabbed by AR. While by this stage, all of the injuries to the child survivors had already been inflicted, that does not diminish the appropriateness and courage of Mr Hayes’ actions. Moreover, it should also be recalled that Child X and Mrs Liddle were sheltering in the upstairs lavatory cubicle at this stage, still vulnerable to being attacked by AR.