My boy was beaten up in Welsh school playground... just for being English!
A MOTHER’S claims that her 11-year-old son has been beaten ‘black and blue’ at his Welsh primary school ‘because he’s English’ are being investigated as a potential hate crime.
Kelly Wood, who is herself Welsh, says Liam has been the victim of bullying in the playground for more than four years.
Children hit and punch him and call him names because he is English and they think he is overweight, she alleges.
Mrs Wood, 35, said Liam – who is in Year 6 at Waunarlwydd Primary School – used to be the ‘happiest boy ever’. But since the bullying started, he has become anxious and stressed, she said.
Incidents include him coming home ‘black and blue’ from being hit and punched plus insults like being called ‘fat’, ‘English p***k’ and ‘ English idiot’, she alleges. On one occasion he was beaten so badly he needed medical treatment in A&E, she said.
‘Liam used to be such a happy soul,’ the social care worker told the Daily Mail. ‘Now he is withdrawn and cries a lot.’
Welsh- born Mrs Wood and her husband Martin, who is originally from Buckinghamshire, moved to South Wales five years ago when Mr Wood left the RAF on a medical discharge after 17 years. Because of his father’s job, Liam had attended many different schools.
So when the family moved to Gowerton, near Swansea, they wanted Liam to have the stability of attending one school for the rest of his primary education.
Instead, Mrs Wood is paying £30 a week so Liam can have counselling after he confessed he ‘ didn’t want to be here any more’.
After deciding the school weren’t doing enough, she decided to report it to police. Inspector Simon Trick, of South Wales Police, said: ‘We are investigating allegations of bullying and hate crime. It is unacceptable, and we take it extremely seriously.’
The force said hate crimes constituted offences including physical, verbal or online abuse ‘motivated by prejudice towards a person’s identity’.
In a statement, the school said it ‘treats any claims of bullying very seriously’.