Tenant ran away!

Rent Arrears

Tenant had a 12 months contract from 1st Dec 2019 until 31st November 2020. Tenant only paid rent for only 3 months in the 12 months tenancy, he claimed covid effected his finances. Tenant failed to provide any proof of financial losses and did not pay rent from April 2020. Sent letter to tenant to arrange a payment plan in which he ignored. In September 2020 started court proceedings after 6 months of rent arrears. Court hearing date was arranged for November 2020 and was adjourned for January 2021. An emergency occurred that I had to access Tenant room this week and found the tenant left without informing landlord leaving the room damaged and dirty. As well as setting up a fire hazard putting other tenants at risk. A message was send to the tenants of my finding and he replied saying he left 2 weeks ago and good luck with finding him, he also lied he informed me in his message. Tenant owns me 7k rent arrears as well as damaged to room.

Do I continue with hearing in January 2021? To get a judgement for rent arrears and do a separate claim for damages? How do i go about?