Police in Kanagawa Prefecture said Tuesday that three junior high school students have been sent to a child consultation center following the suicide of a boy they bullied.

According to police, the students confessed to holding down and hitting the boy at a school in Yugawara in late February this year. TBS reported that the victim later took his own life at his home in April.

It is believed that his suicide was connected to the bullying he had suffered at school. In a questionnaire handed to students, several said they had seen the boy being bullied at least 40 times.

During questioning, the boys told investigators that they had bullied the deceased boy for fun, TBS reported.

At a press conference on Monday, the board of education responsible for the school apologized for failing to identify and deal with the bullying. A spokesman said that teachers at the school had not been aware the boy was being bullied.

© Japan Today