‘Bullied’ schoolgirl is discovered dead

London Evening Standard/London

A schoolgirl who discussed suicide and revealed that she was driven to self-harming after being bullied has been found dead.

Aspiring dancer Sinead Taylor, 15, died after posting an online video in which she revealed the extent of the abuse.

The teenager said she was targeted both throughout primary school and also during the first two years of secondary school by other pupils who made fun of her tomboy appearance and insulted her.

Friends claim that the bullying drove her to suicide.

Sources said Sinead, of Kidbrooke, had in the past confided in people close to her about her ordeal. Her family yesterday said they were “devastated” by her death.

In a nine-minute video diary posted two months ago, Sinead said the victimisation was so bad that she had resorted to self-harming. “There was some boy who didn’t like me because I used to hang around with the boys,” she said. “He always used to put me down. I can’t even remember what he said but he just made me feel so awful that I just wanted to go home and cry — and back then I never used to cry.

“People used to call me a lesbian or bisexual and they would accuse me of looking at them while they were getting changed, like they wouldn’t want to get changed in front of me. It all got to me at some point and I did self-harming. I used to cut myself every night before I went to bed.”

Sinead, understood to have moved schools to Corelli College because of the bullying, said the attacks had stopped in the past two years. She added: “Self-harming doesn’t help, it just makes it worse, committing suicide makes it worse, doing anything to harm yourself is worse and I have noticed that.

“You have just got to stand up to them and be like, ‘Look, this is who I am, take me for who I am or not at all’. You really don’t need pathetic girls in your life. They’re not worth it.”

But friends said Sinead killed herself because she was being targeted again. Kara Amy Lark wrote on Twitter: “I honestly do not understand bullies. Everyone stop and think about how you treat other people. Rip Sinead.”

Another user wrote: “I cannot believe that about Sinead Taylor from school killing herself. Didn’t know her but awful and vile how people pushed her to that.”

Nicola Caulfield, 40, the mother of the dead girl’s close friend Chloe, 14 — who has also been subjected to bullying — said other pupils were “jealous” of Sinead because of her talent. The teenagers had both achieved distinctions in B-Tec dance.