Boy, 13, hangs himself after bullies pelt him with food

Paul Moran, 13, would sometimes arrive in tears, his hair and clothes covered with food and drink thrown by other pupils

A Schoolboy hanged himself using his favourite football team scarf after complaining that he was being persecuted on the bus ride home from lessons.

Paul Moran, 13, would sometimes arrive in tears, his hair and clothes covered with food and drink thrown by other pupils, his mother said yesterday.

On one occasion his beloved Liverpool FC bag was ripped and on another he was even thrown down stairs, Carole Moran added.

Finally, after speaking about suicide to friends, the "sensitive and caring" teenager's mother found him suspended from his metal bunk bed with his Liverpool scarf, facing a poster of his favourite team.

In a further tragedy, a girl from the same school, Jenny Sykes, also 13, hanged herself eight months later after apparently becoming depressed over his death.

Detectives investigating the schoolgirl's death took away her computer after fears that she visited suicide chatrooms before killing herself.

Yesterday an inquest into Paul's death in Blackpool, Lancashire, heard that his mother had complained three times to staff at Lytham St Annes High School that he was being bullied.

Mrs Moran, 45, told the hearing: "One day he came home covered in eggs and flour and crying his eyes out. He could not understand why he was being picked on and kept saying 'Why me, why me?'.

"They even tore his Liverpool football bag which upset him. The school bus stop was right outside our house but often he would get off a few stops earlier to avoid more trouble."

One day he was pushed out of his seat on the top deck and thrown down the stairs, and on another his boots were thrown off the bus, she said.

He started avoiding the upper deck after his earring was ripped out but could still hear bullies shouting abuse at him from upstairs, and on one occasion a girl spat at him and shoved a banana in his face.

She added that his older brother Steven, 23, had offered to speak to the bullies, but Paul feared that would only make things worse.

On November 27 last year, a Sunday, just hours after he had been looking at a Christmas catalogue with his mother, his six-year-old sister, Courtney, found him hanging in his room.

She fetched their mother who dialled 999 but paramedics were unable to save him.

Following his death, police took 23 statements from other children at the school and discovered he had spoken to friends about suicide.

But although they found some evidence of bullying, there was nothing that would justify criminal action.

At yesterday's hearing, school headteacher Phillip Wood said teachers had investigated allegations that Paul had been covered in food but found he was not the only one because there had been a "food fight" on the bus.

He added: "I do not think it was aimed at Paul uniquely. The problem is that what is high spirits to some children can appear to be bullying to others."

The school had a strict anti-bullying policy which had been updated since Paul's death, he added.

Coroner Anne Hind said Paul may have been worried because the prospect of going back to school the following morning was looming.

However she recorded an open verdict, saying: "It could have been an accident, it could have been a cry for help, or it could have been a successful suicide, but Paul left no note and we will never know."

Jenny Sykes, who is not thought to have been close friends with Paul but who was apparently deeply moved by his death, was found hanged at her home on July 12.

Police said they did not find any evidence she had visited suicide chatrooms. An inquest into her death is expected to be heard next year.

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