Birds of a Feather actress Linda Robson has revealed how her son's mental health deteriorated after witnessing the fatal stabbing of his best friend Ben Kinsella.
Louis, now 22, was holding 16-year-old Ben, brother of former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, in his arms when the ambulance arrived after the attack outside a bar in Islington, London, in 2008.
Now, his mother has opened up on how the death of Ben affected Louis, and how she was told by a doctor that he needed to be sectioned.
Tragedy: Linda Robson's son Louis was best friends with Ben Kinsella and present when the 16-year-old was stabbed to death in 2008, an event which sent Louis into a spiral of depression, anxiety and panic attacks
Linda Robson's son and Ben Kinsella had been best friends since the age of eight, and it was Louis who called the ambulance and tried to stem the bleeding with his cardigan after Ben was stabbed 11 times outside a bar in Islington six years ago.
‘Louis went back to Ben. He was holding him in his arms on the floor,' Linda told the Daily Mail in 2011.
RELATED ARTICLES
One dead and another critically injured following attack by... 
Boy, 16, charged with murder over fatal stabbing in...
Nine-year-old stalked down the street by 'elderly' man and...
Share this article
Share'Eventually they put him in an ambulance. Louis’s clothes were covered in Ben’s blood so he had to take them off.
‘Life changed from that day. It never goes away. You think about it all the time.
Louis was diagnosed with depression and dropped out of college, but his best friend's death had affected him so profoundly that he began suffering panic attacks.
Long way back: Linda and Louis, pictured on stage with Pauline Quirke, her son Charlie and Lesley Joseph in 2012, struggled in the years after Ben Kinsella's death
Murdered: Ben Kinsella was stabbed to death outside an Islington bar in 2008
In 2013, Louis began living like 'a recluse' as his anxiety crippled him and his family.
'Me or my husband had to be around him all the time,' Linda told The Mirror.
'We couldn't go out - he'd panic if we weren't there.'
A year later, Linda and her husband Mark visited a Harley Street doctor for help handling Louis' illness, and were told their son needed sectioning.
'The doctor said Louis needed to be locked up, send away and put on medication for a month.'
Linda and Mark did not take up the offer, and instead sought alternative anxiety therapy for their son, who is now recovered and working on a music career.
Star pupil and promising artist Ben Kinsella was stabbed 11 times in an Islington street after a night out celebrating the end of his GCSEs with a groups of friends, including Louis, in 2008.
Thee men, Michael Alleyne, Jade Braithwaite, and Juress Kika, all in their late teens at the time of the stabbing, were jailed for the murder.
Ben's sister, actress Brooke Kinsella, has since campaigned tirelessly for tougher knife-crime sentences since her brother was killed, working as a Government ambassador and helping to set up the Ben Kinsella Trust.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwrdGtoJyklWJ%2FenyUa21pZ3SksLW70axkrJmZmXq0u81mqp6bpJ68r7HDZp2roZWjsW6%2FjKyrmpqSnruoedOroKCflaeypXnPmqWim12WwbWtwqSqZquRrsBujsirm2Z%2BlZbBqbHRZqqtmaJimaq6w5pki6eSqLyvesetpKU%3D