Schoolgirl who was 'bullied for years' posted online video about abuse two months before she was found dead

Sinead Taylor, 15, described years of torment in video diary posted online



Aspiring dancer said was called a 'lesbian' and 'bisexual' because of her tomboy appearance and was forced to change schools



Had advised others to ignore bullies: 'You really don't need pathetic girls in your life'

'Bullied': Sinead Taylor, 15, was found dead last Friday two months after she discussed years of bullying in an online video

A ‘tomboy’ schoolgirl who talked online about being bullied at school has been found dead.

Sinead Taylor, 15, was driven to suicide after enduring abuse from bullies throughout primary and secondary school, according to friends.

In a nine-minute video diary posted online just two months ago Sinead, an aspiring dancer from Kidbrooke, south-east London, spoke of her battle with the bullies.

‘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.’

The teenager said she resorted to self-harming, saying she cut herself ‘every night before I went to bed’ but issued a defiant message to bullies.

‘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,’ she said.

‘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.’

Heartfelt: During a nine-minute video, Sinead talked about the years of bullying she had suffered and gave advice to others Sinead is understood to have moved schools to Corelli College in Blackheath because of the bullying, and the attacks were said to have stopped.

But friends said she killed herself because she was being targeted again. Police would not reveal the circumstances surrounding her death, saying only that the body of a 15-year-old girl was found at an address in Woolwich and the death was being treated as ‘non- suspicious’. Sinead attended classes at the JK Dance Academy, a leading school, and had been awarded a distinction in her B-Tec dance exam.

Suffering: Sinead had admitted self-harming because of bullying but said it had 'only made things worse'

Abuse: Sinead said she would 'go home and cry' after being targeted by bullies at school

Nicola Caulfield, 40, the mother of one of Sinead’s friends, Chloe, 14, said both girls had been the victims of ‘jealous’ bullies.

‘I think there would have been a lot of jealousy, as Sinead was very talented,’ she said.

‘Bullying isn’t left in the playground now, like it was in my day.



Now there is Instagram, Twitter, all this social networking. It’s about time the authorities started to prosecute the bullies.’

For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90, log on to www.samaritans.org or visit a local branch.



