Dead boy wrote 'diary of despair' about repeated after-school taunts, inquest told Hanged schoolboy 'bullied'

The day before football-mad Vijay Singh was found by his mother on the stairs at his home with a scarf tied to a banister round his neck, he had been seen running home in a ''terrible state'', the hearing was told.

South Manchester coroner John Pollard recorded an open verdict, saying there was not sufficient evidence that he had intended to take his own life.

The week before his death, Vijay, of Rutland Avenue, Firs-wood, Manchester, had written what the coroner called a ''secret diary of despair'' as part of a school project in which he talked about the effects of bullying.

Vijay, described as intelligent, articulate, well-liked, and a brilliant sportsman, had written: ''I shall remember this for eternity and I shall never forget.

''Monday - my money was taken; Tuesday - names called; Wednesday - my uniform torn; Thursday - my body pouring with blood; Friday - it's ended; Saturday - freedom.''

On Saturday, last October 12, his mother Hardev Singh found Vijay on the stairs of their home with the scarf round his neck.

She told the hearing he had mentioned ''a bit of trouble'' in his first year at Stretford High School the previous year, but that he had ''sorted it out''.

Acting school head Martin Delamere said there was nothing to suggest Vijay had been the subject of bullying or racist taunts at Stretford High, which had a charter on bullying and a counsellor.

English teacher Lynne Leighton told the coroner that Vijay's poem had been written as part of a project involving his whole class and there

had been nothing to alarm her.

However, a late witness at the inquest, the family's decorator Tom Lewis - who knew the boy well because of their shared interest in football - said: ''He didn't like the journey to and from school because he was picked on.

''His clothes were pulled and he was once punched on the nose outside school. Most of the bullying was by people from other schools. But on one occasion he had been bullied in school.

''On the Friday before he died, I saw him running home in a right state. He looked as if he had been pulled about. He was going like a bat out of hell,'' he said.

Mr Lewis said Vijay sometimes asked him to walk down the street with him in case he was attacked. He thought Vijay had probably written his poem as a ''cry for help''.

''Perhaps he hoped that one of the teachers might have picked up on it and discussed it with him,'' said Mr Lewis.

Detective Constable Jim Rustidge said he interviewed 22 of the boy's classmates. One said Vijay, who wore a turban, had been called ''bobblehead'' during a school football match.

They had said they would have known if Vijay had been bullied and there had been no suggestion of that.

The coroner said there was evidence of minor teasing and taunting at the school ''of the sort that takes place with many if not most children in most schools at some time''.

''I have also heard evidence of reported, and I go no further than that, incidents that amount to rather more than minor bullying, primarily to and from school,'' he said.

The school appeared to have a ''very comprehensive policy'' on bullying, with counselling procedures.

The question of why Vijay died had not been answered.

''In my view, we will never know why he did what he did,'' said Mr Pollard.

Mrs Singh told the inquest that Vijay sometimes started saying things to her, ''as if he wanted to tell me and would back off half way through the conversation''.

After the hearing, she said: ''What he wrote in that poem came from the heart.

''I would say to all those children out there - don't suffer in silence like my son did.

''Please go and get help because there is help there for you. Something triggered this off in Vijay but he kept it all in and kept it all to himself.''