The Metropolitan Police failed to inform the parents of a runaway that he had been found and had attended school weeks before he was murdered in Lee.

Kevin Ssali, 14, climbed out of a window following an argument at his South Norwood home in July 13, 2012, and was never seen again by his family.

He was stabbed to death by Roree Cox on a bus in Lee Green nine weeks later.

In a report published by Croydon Safeguarding Children’s Board yesterday it was revealed Kevin attended Crown Woods College for the last day of term a week after being reported missing, causing police to close his file without informing either of his parents.

The report said police, social workers and college staff “should have responded differently” to the “pivotal issue” of Kevin’s appearance at college, although it concluded authorities could not have predicted or prevented his death.

Kevin’s father, Sewa Ssali, 56, criticised authorities after the trial of his killer last year.

He said: “There were a lot of failings and we would like to bring that to light to avoid anything like that happening.

“There were a lot of mistakes made, by the police, by the social services, by the school.

“They just let him walk out of the school. Nobody knew where he had been staying for that week. What kind of responsibility was that?”

An Independent Police Complaints Commission report compiled last year said police should have returned Kevin to his mother Clemence Mudage’s home in Whitworth Road, adding “this may have altered the outcome”.

Police have never established the teenager’s whereabouts during his disappearance and did not follow up his mother’s belief he had become involved with gangs, which she feared were using him to sell drugs in Woolwich. 

News Shopper:
Kevin Ssali's parents Sewa and Erone with their daughter Sara-Marie

The serious case review found no evidence to support claims Kevin, described as “likeable and very sociable”, was being harboured by a drug gang or to substantiate an anonymous phone call to a social worker alleging he was “living in a crack den”.

It said: “If Kevin had been found during the weeks after he ran away from home, it may be that he would have disclosed what he was ‘up to’ and a risk assessment could have been completed.

"It may be that he was living a high-risk life style, but that remains supposition.”

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Police cordoned off Burnt Ash Road in Lee Green after the murder

The Safeguarding Children’s Board has made a series of recommendations, including that the Met and Croydon Council’s children’s services should remind staff of their duties, and is to commission a review of whether services for older missing children are “sufficiently robust”.

The report added: “This case has highlighted underlying assumptions by professionals that a seemingly competent and confident 14-year-old can make their own way over a six-week holiday period.

“This begs the question of how we view the risks of gang and drug involvement and knife crime to predominantly young males and sadly to young black males in areas of London.”

A Metropolitan Police spokeman said: “There were no recommendations of misconduct on the part of any officer, but there are areas of learning for both individuals and the organisation which will be acted upon.”

Cox, now 19, from New Cross, was jailed for life for murder at the Old Bailey in January last year.