Mobile phone footage has captured the moment a 13-year-old girl was brutally assaulted by a fellow pupil outside the school gates.
Terri-Mae Lunt, 13, was savagely kicked, punched and dragged by her hair in the attack, which left her with severe bruising and bite marks.
Perhaps most shocking of all is the fact that 100 other pupils watched on but did nothing to help or to stop the vicious attack. The beating was only stopped when a bus driver and local resident stepped in to intervene.
And, although parents Melanie and Terry have tried to press charges against the other girl, police have said they were unable to establish how the brawl began because of inconsistent accounts from witnesses.
Her parents have now pulled the year eight pupil out of classes and say she is too afraid to go back.
In the lead up to the attack, Terri-Mae, of Moston, Manchester, said she had been sent abusive text messages from two fellow pupils at Manchester Creative and Media Academy in Blackley.
She claimed that one of the girls told her she “wanted to fight her” last month, and was then jumped outside the gates on May 11.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mr Lunt said:
The video is absolutely traumatic to watch. I am ex-forces and I’ve never seen anything like it. She was in a state. She had severe bruising to her face, chest and arms, and bite marks on her. She was lucky nothing was broken.
I am absolutely livid, I feel so let down, by the school and the justice system. As a father, at first I felt anger but then you put all your faith in the agencies like the police and the school and everyone has just come back and said, ‘There is nothing we can do’. They need to realise the suffering that is brought not only my daughter but us as a family too – she is just not the same kid.
The school suspended the girl involved in the attack for a week and another pupil for two days.
Mrs Lunt added:
The school let the girls involved return after two days for one and a week for the other and when we asked why they said they felt that it was punishment enough. We still had our faith in the police at that point but we didn’t want the child involved to have a criminal record because kids make mistakes and deserve a second chance.
Police were informed of the incident by the Lunts and a restorative justice session was organised but, when they attended, they found the other girl had brought a solicitor. Terri-Mae asked for the session to go ahead without the lawyer but the attacker’s parents refused.
The Lunts tried to press charges but, despite having the video footage, police ruled there was “insufficient evidence to progress this matter”.
Mrs Lunt added:
We were given the option of restorative justice but when we went to the station the other family brought a solicitor and refused to speak without them because they didn’t want to incriminate their child.
I just felt all the way through that the police could do without the hassle – it was three or four days to get back to me every time and that’s why it has taken so long.
The Lunts are now looking to enrol Terri-Mae in a new school in the area.
