A 16-year-old girl who came to Britain from Poland was found dead at school after being bullied, an inquest has heard.

Dagmara Przybysz, 16, who moved to the UK with her family nine years ago, died at her school, Pool academy in Redruth, Cornwall. She had previously been told she “did not belong here”.



At an inquest in Truro, Dagmara was described as a beautiful, happy and popular pupil who had an extremely bright future and planned to study photography at college.



But the inquest heard she had confided to friends and family that she had been singled out because of her nationality by bullies who called her a “stupid Pole” and told her she “did not belong here”.



Her mother, Ewelina Przybysz, said she understood her daughter had been having a problem with one girl who had “called Dagmara names”.



“I don’t know exactly what was said,” she said. “This incident occurred only a few days before Dagmara passed away … I don’t know whether these incidents were racist in nature.”

She said Dagmara had been subjected to racist insults in the past but added that she believed her daughter’s problems went wider.

“She said … it was not a problem any more,” Przybysz told the inquest. “We think the biggest problem for Dagmara was not racism but bullying.”

Dagmara’s boyfriend, Lewis Simpson, told the inquest that he thought she had been affected by racist comments, saying: “I think it got to her a little bit.”

The alarm was raised when Dagmara failed to turn up for a lesson on 17 May last year. A postmortem found she died as a result of hanging.

Susan Kent, in charge of pastoral support at the school, said she had seen Dagmara on several occasions including on the day before her death without seeing anything to suggest the teenager was at risk: “To the best of my knowledge, she never mentioned any problems of racism to me.”

Ewelina Przybysz told the inquest Dagmara had spoken to her about problems she was having at school.

“She told me she would have comments such as ‘stupid Pole’. Comments were made towards another Polish child and Dagmara would always try to stand up to them.”

Przybysz added: “She commented she did not like it when someone was nasty behind her back. She often talked about problems and she was often hurt when people said unpleasant things.”

The inquest also heard about an incident in a PE lesson that left Dagmara very upset the day before she died.

She fell out with pupils during a rounders game and needed medical treatment after striking a wall in frustration. Her mother said: “She punched a wall so she could get away from these girls and the school.”

Przybysz also mentioned a post her daughter made on the social network site Ask.fm: “She wrote on Ask.fm in answer to a question about what problems she had at school. Dagmara wrote ‘racism’.”

Dagmara’s boyfriend told the inquest how they had restarted a relationship just eight days before she died.

Lewis Simpson told the inquest: “We started dating again and I saw her every day and we talked about future plans to be together. I am very shocked at her death.

“When I saw her on Monday [16 May], she was agitated at what happened in PE. She said: ‘What would you do if I killed myself?’

“I did not take it seriously, as I thought was just worked up by hurting her hand.”

Lewis said there were false rumours on social media that evening that they were going to split up.

He added: “This was not true and we were very angry about it. She did not confide loads. She said about the racism, that’s it.”

A school friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also told the inquest Dagmara had been targeted by racist bullies.

She said: “I used to sit next to her in class. She told me when year 10 [aged 14-15] girls said she ‘did not belong here’. I told her to report this.”

Dagmara’s father, Jedrzej Przybysz, said that on the morning of her death he received a phone call from his daughter. “She was upset and crying and did not want to tell me the reason,” he said.

“Later on, she said she had problems at school that she said I would not understand. I told her to go to school and on return we would have a serious conversation about this problem.”

Przybysz said his daughter had made many friends at primary school since coming to the UK in February 2009 but had not settled at secondary school and asked to move.



Dagmara’s uncle, Tomasz Dobek, took her to hospital after she hurt her hand in the PE lesson.

He told the inquest: “We saw two girls on the pavement and Dagmara said: ‘Uncle, can you run them over.’

“She told me she had hurt her hand while punching the wall as some girls had laughed at her because she could not play the game properly.”

The inquest, which is expected to last three days, continues.

