Coroner queries whether a bullying law should be created

A CORONER has queried whether a specific law on bullying should be created during an inquest into the death of an Ammanford teenager who died following an incident at school.

Bradley John, aged 14, died on September 12 at Morriston Hospital after an incident at St John Lloyd Catholic School in Llanelli.

Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire coroner Mark Layton told a hearing on Friday that “we are moving in the right direction” but it would take four months before he had all the information he needed to hold a full inquest.

“The police are doing an awful amount of work and really are on top of this,” Mr Layton said.

The pre-inquest review, which was attended by members of Bradley’s family including his father, Byron John, heard police had obtained the CCTV footage from all cameras in the school on the day Bradley died.

They will be looking at Bradley’s movements in the school corridors and his classroom in the final moments before he died.

Mr Layton said: “We will be going through that evidence with a fine toothcomb.”

The Ammanford pupil, who was a keen horse rider, had ADHD and Mr John has said this made his son a target for bullies at his school.

Mr Layton said he had used the inquest as an opportunity for discussions at a “senior level” with the police over whether more needs to be done about bullying and cyber-bullying.

“I have asked the police to look at existing legislation covering bullying,” he said.

“At the moment there is no statutory offence of bullying. Is there a need for any formal legislative procedures to cover bullying and cyber-bullying, which is very much in the public domain at the moment?”

Alongside the police investigation the school are looking at whether they will be undertaking a child death review.