‘Ben Was Sobbing After Bullying By Bus Driver. Then He Hanged Himself’

A schoolboy hanged himself from his bunk bed after the driver of his school bus regularly joined bullies to taunt him, an inquest was told yesterday. Ben Vodden, 11, was found unconscious by his father, Paul, with shoelaces round his neck.

Earlier he had returned home from school on the bus, where he had endured three months of constant name-calling, gesturing and swearing since starting at his new secondary school in September.

An inquest was told that the bus driver, Brian McCullough, had been responsible for some of the taunts, allegedly calling him Master Bate, Billy No Mates and Dickhead.

Ben’s mother, Caroline Vodden, wept as she described seeing her son return home in torment, saying that the bullying had started when his tie was torn from his neck by fellow pupils on the bus on his second day at Tanbridge House School, a comprehensive in Horsham, West Sussex.

The inquest at Horsham was told that on the morning of his death in December he left for school and sent his father a text message stating: “Please can you bring my gel. PS, they are doing it again.”

He assumed that this meant Ben was being bullied. Later Mrs Vodden received a phone call from the school reporting that Ben had been taken off the bus on his way home because he had been hitting the air vent and making a gesture at the driver.

After confronting Ben, Mrs Vodden said: “He immediately got very angry and defensive and asked what the school had said.” She tried to coax the details from him but he refused to talk and retreated to his bedroom. He emerged a short time later, gave her a hug and said: “I’m sorry, mummy.”

He went back into his bedroom and closed the door. Mrs Vodden said that she heard him sobbing. When his father returned from work and entered the bedroom to ask Ben about his problems, he found him hanged from the bunk.

Mrs Vodden said that Ben had complained to her previously about the taunts, saying: “I hate the bus and I hate school. It is Brian, the bus driver — he is horrible to me.”

Ben later confided in his father. Mrs Vodden said: “He felt unable to tell me as his mother because of the language used. Ben told his father, ‘Brian the bus driver has been calling me Master Bate because he says I’m a little w*****’, and he said everyone on the bus was calling him Master Bate.”

Mr Vodden rang C and L Coaches in Lancing, but was told that no one was available. Mrs Vodden said: “We couldn’t believe that an adult in a position of responsibility could call a child such a thing.”

When the school took up the matter, Mr McCullough denied the allegations and no further action was taken because it was the driver’s word against Ben’s.Mrs Vodden said that Ben was “incredulous” that the driver had denied calling him names. She said: “His jaw dropped in complete disbelief.”

Mr McCullough, a former security officer, denied calling Ben Master Bate but said that he had called him Dickhead and Billy No Mates in what he claimed was “friendly banter”.

Describing how he felt “devastated” by the death, Mr McCullough said: “Ben to me was always Jack the Lad, the aggressor. We always had banter between us.” He added: “If anyone had said to me at any time that I was picking on Ben I would not have continued, but no one did.”

Ben’s head teacher, Maureen Johnson, said that the school had a no-tolerance anti-bullying policy, and that names given by Ben were followed up. She said that no reports of bullying related to school time.

Recording an open verdict, David Skipp, the deputy West Sussex coroner, said that he was satisfied there was no evidence that Ben intended deliberately to take his own life.

In a statement later, Ben’s parents criticised schools for encouraging children not to retaliate when they were bullied. They said: “Ben was not scared of the bullies. He would stick up for himself and sometimes that got him into trouble. The victim was made to feel as bad as the perpetrators, and that can’t be right.

“We had been in discussion with the school, bus company and county hall regarding a number of incidents and at least one of these involved Ben being told off for retaliating.”

West Sussex County Council and Tanbridge House School said in a statement: “Ben was experiencing occasional difficulties. Steps were taken to address this and at no point was there evidence to suggest that the problems were of a scale to precipitate this tragedy.”