The parents of a schoolboy who took his own life after he was relentlessly bullied because of his good grades have spoken for the first time about the tragedy.

Mark and Anita Abel and said their son Sam, 14, “loved school and loved learning, but hated the people who were there” and that his death will “haunt” them for the rest of their lives.

The teenager took his own life by jumping off a supermarket car park earlier this year after he was bombarded with spiteful messages on social media day and night.

An inquest heard how he had shared text messages with friends about his depression and suicidal thoughts before the tragic incident took place on January 8.

View photos Sam met Prince Harry at last year’s Invictus Games (Caters) More

Sam, who was a pupil at Tudor Grange Academy School, suffered name calling, pranks and physical abuse before the bullies took to social media and he was receiving messages via Snapchat and Facebook messenger on a daily basis.

Sam’s dad, Mark said: “Snapchat messages only last seconds but when your getting those messages constantly, the seconds add up and they broke him down in the end.”

“It started as individuals but I think more people joined in with taunting him when it developed into cyber bullying.

“We will never know how serious those messages were because the police cannot get access to the messages due to encryption.

View photos Sam’s parents say he loved school and loved learning, but hated the people who were there (Caters) More

“It obviously got that bad that it pushed him over the edge. He had no escape from them because it wasn’t just at school anymore.

“It was online and offline and on and off the playground. They probably thrived off it or got a kick out of it.”

Sam confided in school friends and even teaching staff but after thinking the problem was under control, his parents were left in the dark about what their son was going through.

“He spoke to one particular teacher a lot and even visited the head teacher after one particular incident, we were really proud of him for doing that,” Mark said.

“We visited the school numerous times but he hated us going down there because he thought the bullies would call him a grass.

View photos Sam was bullied on social media and at school (Caters) More

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