A 15-YEAR-OLD Bolton girl today told how she tried to kill herself after a girl gang of school bullies "made her life hell".

The pretty teenager - just 5ft tall and seven stone - says the gang tried to force her to fight with a friend after school.

When she refused, the gang swelled to around 20 with older youths and formed a chain around her, running at the girl and pushing her to the ground, kicking her and shouting abuse.

When she tried to get away, she says that they stoned her and pulled out her hair in clumps.

One girl tried to choke her from behind with her school tie, saying: "Let's strangle her to death."

The encounter left Katie - not her real name - torn and bleeding and her friend in hospital with a broken nose, cuts and bruises - inflicted, she says, by the tough girl thugs.

Her shocked mother recalls: "When Katie came home, I thought she'd been raped.

"Her uniform and tights were ripped and she was hysterical." Police and the school were alerted, says her mother, but the police felt it was a matter for the school.

"In the end, nothing was done," she added, and the hate campaign continued against her daughter.

After one nasty alleged incident where Katie and a friend were pelted with stone-filled snowballs by the gang, she played truant and disappeared to Blackpool for two days.

But she was returned and reluctantly agreed to go back to school, although was increasingly quiet.

Two months later, Katie went to bed early one evening, and swalled 60 Paracetamol tablets.

Her mother was woken at midnight by the sound of her daughter being violently sick. Katie was rushed to hospital where doctors warned her parents that she could die, or be left with permanent liver or kidney damage.

Fortunately, the vomiting saved Katie's life and, after a two week stay in hospital, the youngster was sent home. She had to have regular sessions with a psychiatrist, who advised a gradual return to schoolwork. But, she says, the bullying continued in a subtle form, with the gang nudging her when she passed and continually making cruel remarks. As a result, Katie began cutting herself, and one day, slashed her wrists. "Somehow it made me feel better," she now says.

After this incident, her mother refused to let her return to school.

We have changed all family details and not identified the school to minimise the girl's distress at the request of her mother.

Today, she is staying with relatives in Manchester because she is frightened to live back at home - near the school, and the bullies she claims ruined her life.

"She was always a quiet girl, not a brilliant student but we always had good reports about her behaviour," says her mother.

"She is good at art and her art teacher has been wonderful, bringing work for her and taking a real interest."

Katie still finds it hard to talk about the months of terror that still stalk her worst dreams. "I still don't know why they picked on me. I didn't even know some of them," she says, tearfully.

"The school refused to exclude the girls who did this," says her mother, "but their actions have effectively meant that Katie has been excluded." Added Katie: "I just hope that when they're older they think about what they've done, and are ashamed."

A statement from the headteacher says: "This school, like any other, is well aware of the sad consequences of bullying for any individual and therefore reacts sympathetically and according to clear policies and procedures.

"Every case is fully investigated with appropriate counselling and disciplinary procedures if required with parents and other agencies involved as and when necessary.

"The school has very large numbers of students and over many years has had very few cases indeed where any accusation of bullying has not been followed through to a resolution satisfactory to the pupil and parents.

"The school is known to be supportive and caring in every case and also takes pupils from elsewhere with a variety of problems who have settled in well and completed their schooling. "This particular case is an extremely complex and distressing one and we are sorry that the family feel as they obviously do, especially in view of the amount of time spent by at least one particular member of staff with this pupil and her mother."

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