After the school crime at Brinell School in Fagersta in August, 18-year-old Liam Nebel is in custody on suspicion of one murder and four attempted murders.
A so-called section 7 investigation - which the court has requested - shows that the 18-year-old suspect may suffer from a serious mental disorder.
In documents that DN has seen, it appears that both social services and Liam Nebel's family home in Fagersta have raised the alarm about his mental condition and difficulties connected to it.
Child and adolescent psychiatry, bup, in Västerås took the concern seriously and started an investigation. The case was taken over by bup in Fagersta. But it stopped there.
"The investigation was interrupted despite extensive information about the young person's difficulties and despite remaining concerns from social services and the family home," Sundsvall municipality writes in a deviation that has been sent to Region Västmanland after the school incident.
It is the social service in the municipality of Sundsvall that has always been responsible for Liam Nebel and his family home placement in Fagersta, where he moved in 2024.
According to Eva Leijon, head of the children and young people activity area at the social service in Sundsvall municipality, Liam Nebel's need for support and efforts was never investigated because the referral was withdrawn by bup in Fagersta.
She says that the investigation was dropped without consultation with the family home and social services.
- The problem is that we have not made the same assessment and we have not been allowed to speak about the assessment, says Eva Leijon.
In Region Västmanland, an examination of the course of events has just begun due to the criticism from the social services in Sundsvall, says Tove Marthin, director of operations for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
She sees nothing strange in the fact that a young person's need for an investigation can be reconsidered.
- But we will look at this with the help of a central patient safety team and after that I am prepared to answer questions.
In the deviation from the municipality of Sundsvall, it is stated that the investigation was withdrawn by a newly graduated psychologist on practical duty, a so-called PTP psychologist. How do you see it?
- PTP psychologists do everything under supervision and do not make decisions on their own. A very experienced psychologist supervises them and helps, and in this particular case the experienced psychologist has also been inside, says Tove Marthin.
In the municipality of Sundsvall's own investigation regarding suspected irregularities in the handling of Liam Nebel's case, it appears that the social service was very aware of his "complex problems and need for support".
It also appears that social services have repeatedly tried to have his mental health and needs assessed by healthcare.
According to Eva Leijon, social services were in contact with psychiatry in Region Västmanland regarding Liam Nebel as recently as last summer.
Is there anything else you could have done so that the care would take your concerns seriously?
- What we have come to the conclusion is that perhaps we should have pushed even harder and somehow aggregated this to a higher level. That we would not have been satisfied with this psychologist making his assessment and then there was nothing more to it, says Eva Leijon.
What would you have done?
- Perhaps we should have raised the issue one step further. That managers should have met and reasoned and tried to move forward. Then it cannot be said that nothing would have happened then. You can't speculate on that. But we think we need to learn from what goes wrong.
You describe that the suspected perpetrator had extensive and known difficulties that you believe should have been investigated by psychiatry. How extensive are the difficulties involved?
- I can't go into that. Extensive difficulties are extensive difficulties, says Eva Leijon.
Despite some self-criticism, the municipality of Sundsvall concludes that the social service has not contributed to any irregularities in the handling of Liam Nebel.
There will still be a review of the entire case, says Eva Leijon.
Region Västmanland's review of bup's actions in Fagersta will take place quickly, according to Tove Marthin.
