Aaron, 9, ‘bullied to death for being white’

Aaron, 9, ‘bullied to death for being white’ 


THE devastated family of a nine-year-old boy who hanged himself say he took his life after racist taunts by Asian bullies.

Aaron Dugmore — thought to be one of Britain’s youngest suicides after bullying — was found in his bedroom after months of jibes at school, they claim.

His family say that Aaron was threatened with a plastic KNIFE by one Asian pupil — who warned him: “Next time it will be a real one.”

But despite complaints to the school, where 75 per cent of pupils come from ethnic backgrounds, they claim nothing was done to stop the bullying.

Heartbroken mum Kelly-Marie Dugmore is convinced the taunts led to her son killing himself two weeks ago. She sobbed: “We are not racist people. Aaron got on with all the children at his last school, and for him to have been bullied because of the colour of his skin makes me feel sick to my stomach.”

Aaron joined Erdington Hall primary in Birmingham last September after the family moved nearby. But Kelly-Marie, 30, and stepdad Paul Jones, 43, noticed a change in him from his first day.

Paul said: “He became argumentative with his brothers and sisters, which wasn’t like him at all. Eventually he told us that he was being bullied by a group of Asian children at school and had to hide from them in the playground at lunchtime. He said one kid even said to him, ‘My dad says all the white people should be dead’.”

Kelly-Marie claimed: “He was even threatened with a plastic knife by one boy. When Aaron stuck up for himself he said it’d be a real one next time.

“I went to see head Martin Collin a few times, but he only said, ‘You didn’t have to come to this school, you chose to come here’.”

A spokesman for Erdington Hall, labelled unsatisfactory by Ofsted, said Aaron had “settled in quickly”. West Midlands Police are investigating the causes of Aaron’s death.