Victim of Australian bully wins 1 mln dollars

Canberra, May 15: An Australian teenager, who as a young child was bullied at school, won a record court settlement likely to top 1 million Australian dollars after a judge said the school failed to step in and stop the abuse.

Benjamin Cox, now 18, was teased from the age of five by an older student at his public school, leaving him suffering a range of psychiatric problems and robbing him of his adolescence, the New South Wales Supreme Court was told.

Judge Carolyn Simpson yesterday ruled the school had ''grossly failed'' its duty of care to Cox, and she ordered the state to award him more than 213,000 Australian dollars in damages, as well as weekly earnings for life in a payout set to top 1 million Australian Dollars .

The court was told Cox was regularly teased by an older bully and was beaten, and on one occasion, the bully tried to strangle Cox, who fell to the ground unconscious.

His mother, Angela Cox, reported the bullying to the police and to the school, where one teacher said the such incidents were character building, prompting the bully to make a death threat against Cox.

''Ben was getting scared, like being pushed into the school walls. He had a tooth punched out, he got whipped with a tree branch with welts across his back,'' Angela Cox told Australian radio outside the court.

She said the bullying was so bad, her son was too afraid to attend high school and was unable to finish his education.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard yesterday announced plans to give teachers and school principals more powers to crack down on school bullies.

Reuters>