A bullied schoolboy hanged himself after he was falsely branded a rapist by fellow pupils when he pulled out of a playground drug dealing racket, an inquest heard.
Tom Acton, 16, had said he was bullied into taking Ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine in between lessons – yet when his mother went to see staff at his village high school, it was claimed they refused to do anything about it.
When Tom was withdrawn from 1,700-pupil Poynton High School in Cheshire, false rumours began circulating which wrongly alleged the innocent teenager had tied a girl to a tree then sexually assaulted her.
It resulted in mobs of angry youths targeted Tom in the street and turning up at the family’s front door saying they wanted to kill him and ”get rid of the vermin.”
Distraught Tom self-harmed with a blade under the pressure and intimidation and even carved the word ”rapist” into his leg.
A friend had to stop him jumping from a railway bridge and he considered stepping into the path of heavy traffic.
Days before he was due to testify at the trial of one of the bullies Tom was found hanged in his bedroom by his father.
He was taken to hospital but died three days later. The tragedy occurred just months after Tom gained nine GCSEs, including a grade B in drama.
TRAGIC: Tom Acton was so upset at the false rumours he took his own life (© Cavendish Press)
At an inquest in Warrington, Tom’s mother Gaynor questioned why the school refused to accept that they had a problem with drugs – even though the suspected drug dealer’s own mother gave staff a similar story.
Mrs Acton, 45, a company director of a hydraulics firm, said her son had been bullied into taking drugs within the school and had started taking them in 2009.
She added: ”Tom was getting beat up a lot, being chased a lot, physically and mentally abused on a daily basis.
”There were lots of police incidents recorded, school records. I tried working with the school to start with but the school wouldn’t do anything about it, the next line was the police who again did nothing about it.
“He was on Class A drugs that had been supplied to him from the lads inside of school, MDMA, amphetamines, cocaine, tablets. The only way we could get him to stop was to take him out of school; we took him out for three months.”
Asked by a coroner if he had explained to her why he took the drugs, Mrs Acton added: “Because if he didn’t he would get bullied – if he did what everyone else did they would leave him alone.
”The doctor wrote to the school telling about peer pressure. But because he wasn’t in school taking the drugs that’s when they put it out on Facebook that he was a rapist.”
She said Tom had first started talking about suicidal thoughts in February 2013 and added: “There were lots of times when he said he was going to do something. He never showed me any of the self-harm. It was only what he had told me. He just couldn’t sleep.
”Tom couldn’t have a girlfriend because he was ‘a rapist’. That’s how the rest of the people saw him in Poynton. He loved going out with girls before the rapist allegations.”
In July 2013 she said Tom left Poynton High and enrolled at a college – but had never got over the false rape allegations.
“He was very excited about leaving school, he couldn’t wait to get away from it,” said his mother. ”He was ecstatic that he was leaving school and he wouldn’t have to go back.
”He wouldn’t have to walk back through those school gates. The bullies didn’t know how to get to him since he left school.
“But as regards the rape allegations, he was very upset and he never actually got over that. It was always on his mind.
”I want to know, why, when presented with physical evidence of drug taking in the school, the school refused to accept it had a problem and no action was taken. Similarly when evidence was given by the drug dealer’s mum, nothing was investigated.”
Tom’s ex-girlfriend Holly Spicer told the hearing: “About one month or so before his death I was talking to him in the kitchen and he was talking about the rapist allegations.
”He said he cut ‘rapist’ into his leg and also showed the marks on his wrist. He said he was sorry, I can’t quite remember why. He spoke how he was beginning to believe the rumours himself.”
Another friend Jake Dwight said that Tom had been feeling worried about testifying against a teenage bully who gave him a hiding whilst shouting: ”If I see you, you are dead.”
Jake said: “I knew he was very worried about the upcoming case. He was worried about the repercussions and was worried about the idea of attending court but wanted to go through with it.”
“I witnessed things at high school and once or twice around the village. I never saw any evidence of him doing anything but saw quite a bit of evidence of him receiving it.
”A couple of people sat at the gates waiting for him, his mother had to pick him up.
“The day before he died I saw him and asked if he was okay, he said, ‘no not really’
”He said to come round to his house tomorrow, I never found out what he was talking about. I never thought he would take his own life; he was never one to talk about his own problems. He never asked for help and never showed when he really needed help
Tom’s father Paul, a mechanical electrical manager, was asked if Tom had been anxious about the court case and he said: “Not for himself. We had spoken about it. I had asked him during the week if he was still okay with it and he said he was a bit nervous.
”He was worried about any repercussions that may come about, he was more concerned about his friend being involved who was being called as a witness.”
He added that he had become a “prisoner in his house” for three years before his death because of the rumours.
He said: “He was a very outgoing person, he made friends very easily. But because of the slander and the rumours that were spread he was isolated from everybody for the last three years of his life.
”He never went around Poynton on his own, we had to pick him up and drop him off. He was a prisoner in his own house the last three years.
“No matter where he went there was always someone there shouting at him, calling him a rapist, accusing him of one thing or another, chasing him, sometime they would catch him.
”He made the decision that it wasn’t worth going out. He couldn’t even walk to the shop which was three four minutes away.”
Tom’s GP Dr David Ward said: “He told me that he was the victim of bullying and other children had offered him drugs and cigarettes. He said he was being intimidated by a school pupil that was actively seeking him out and verbally and physically abusing him.
”He said they were everywhere and he couldn’t escape. His mum alleged they were spreading rumours that he was a dirty rapist – he was struggling to concentrate and his mood was low. He described it as being dead inside.
Poynton High School headmaster David Waugh who was appointed after Tom left claimed school files the teenager had been both the “victim and the perpetrator”.
He said there were ‘various incidents where it was six of one and half a dozen of the other’.
Mr Waugh said: “There were similar incidents where he had been bullied, where he had been verbally abused.
”On a one to one basis Tom was exceptionally pleasant and engaged. His behaviour deteriorated in groups or class, or with a teacher he didn’t get on with.”
Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg adjourned the inquest to call the former headteacher of Poynton to answer Mrs Acton’s claims.
