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Bullied Irish boy, 14, shot himself in the face

Friday, 21 November 2008

A 14-year-old schoolboy suffering at the hands of school bullies blasted himself in the face with his father's shotgun in a suicide attempt.

The young teen had crept to an outhouse at home in the north east of the country to take his life, but flinched as he pulled the trigger and received horrific head injuries.

The alarm was raised at around 2am last Sunday when the boy was spotted through a back window of the house and he staggered back home with his jaw mutilated.

He was rushed to St James's Hospital where he is now in a stable condition but expected to be scarred for life.

"Things are very raw with us at the moment," said the boy's mother, who is now demanding to know what was being done in school to protect him and other students.

"He is a big lad for his age, but quiet. He only recently took up boxing but to my mind there are two gangs in the school -- one for the quiet boys and then you have the rough crowd," said another relative.

"He was with the quiet crowd, but we don't know what happened," they added.

It is understood the boy used his father's legally held shotgun to try and end his life on the family farm.

His family now hope that the lad can be moved to a hospital nearer home, but they are still angry that he was left to suffer at the hands of bullies despite a series of complaints to the school principal.

School authorities have declined to comment.

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That poor boy.

All too often the victim is the one removed from the school. This is wrong.

A special boarding school ought to be set up, and then bullies from all the other schools should be sent there. And it should be a tough school too! Not a holiday camp for them. Drum it into them that their behaviour is unacceptable, and that THEY will be the ones who ultimately suffer in the end.

I doubt if you will print this as none of my comments on poor Baby P were printed. But as a victim of bullying when I was in school, its a subject I feel strongly about.

Posted by Anne | 21.11.08, 23:35 GMT

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god bless him he;s in our thoughts.

Posted by robert | 21.11.08, 23:30 GMT

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