Kells family say life being 'made hell' by bullies

A Kells family say their life has been made "a living hell" because of a group of bullies who have targeted their son at school and set up a hate Facebook page against him. Liza and Gerry Dalton, who were about to set up a new business in the town, now say they are considering leaving Kells altogether. Their 11 year-old son no longer attends school as the National Educational Welfare Board has acknowledged that he is "at risk" when it saw the Facebook hate campaign against him. The couple's son, whom they don't want named in order to protect him along with their two older children, were born in South Africa and, as they have only been in Ireland 18 months, they speak with South African accents. The trouble began when he was taunted at school about his accent. "We didn't know about it at first. Within a few weeks of starting school last September, he was targeted and a couple of other incidents took place in the latter part of last year at the house, including tyres being deflated and kids playing 'knick-knack' on their front door," Liza said. She said that matters came to a head a month ago when their home was attacked twice by three boys who pelted the house with oranges and then came back and pelted it with eggs. She said they called the gardai, who spoke to a group of boys but all denied being involved. "The gardai cannot do anything because they are all under 12," she said. A spokesperson for Kells Garda Station said they were familiar with the case. St Colmcille's National School has declined to comment on the situation.