A mum has spoken of her horror after finding a video posted on an 'Instagram fight page' of her 12-year-old daughter being violently attacked. Yobs filmed defenceless victim Lily Butler being beaten repeatedly by her school peers and posted it on social media.
Her distraught mum came home to find the youngster shaken up and badly battered and bruised. But her concern soon turned to fury when she discovered footage of the prolonged attack online.
And she then watched in horror as Lily was held on the floor and punched multiple times in the footage uploaded to Instagram page ‘la.baites.’ The page, which has now been taken down by the social media firm, showed a series of fights inside corridors and on school grounds at Littlehampton Academy in West Sussex.
The bio reads “Litthampton fights and pics (send me videos and pics)” and described pupils getting "boxed" and "banged". And mum Megan Jones, 31, has now spoken out and said the school should have taken stronger action against the perpetrators.
She said: “Three months ago Lily had a disagreement with one of the girl’s brothers, but they sorted it out and that was fine. But even though it was sorted it was just an excuse for her to go and attack someone else. Then she saw Lily down the park and said “I’m going to get you.”
“Then somebody filmed it, and just started attacking her. Lily didn’t know they were going to attack her."
Lily, who is in Year 7, told her mum her attackers were two years older than her. In the footage, bystanders jeered and filmed the girls punching the schoolgirl in the face as she lay face down on the floor.
Footage then shows two female attackers aggressively following Lily as she tries to cross the street away from them. One of the girls then steps in front and punches her in the face.
Both begin shouting at Lily and the other assailant begins hitting her face multiple times. Lily walks off quickly, pursued by one of the girls as the other turns to the young male holding the camera, flashes her knuckles, and says “s***.”
The kid behind the camera responds: “Oi, s***, are you good? Are you good?” The girl then returns to Lily and the ongoing attack over the road and punches her in the face while her back is turned.
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One of the attackers grabs Lily's hair and coat and violently drags her across the pavement, before both pile on top of her, yanking her hair and punching her head while her face is on the ground. After one stops abusing Lily, the other continues to pin the child to the ground, laying increasingly frantic blows to her head. Lily can be seen curling, defenceless, into a ball.
Youths gather around the scene and the cameraman can be heard shouting: “Oi, bloodclart, oi f***, bloodclart.” Watching the violence progress, bystanders begin calling: “Get off her, get off her.” and “Sit up, sit the f*** up.”
Two young men attempt to drag the attacker up and away, but she clings onto Lily’s hair and keeps hammering her head. She then gets up and once again drags her victim along the floor. Ms Jones blamed the school’s inaction, and turned up the next day calling for the girls to be kicked out, but claims the school said no.
She added: "They say they have to wait until the police investigation to do anything, well no, you should be nipping it in the bud now and get them out. They’re more worried about 22 pleats in their skirt, or that their skirt is above their knees."
Megan, who has attempted to confront those responsible herself, said the attack was so horrific her daughter could have been killed. She added: "That one punch, one punch is all it takes to kill someone. And what they have done is just absolutely disgusting."
The mum said the daughter kept her head down and couldn't look at her. Other parents then saw Megan's post about the incident and said their daughters had also been attacked in a similar way.
She added: “On the Instagram account, there are two girls in LTA uniform fighting in the corridor, inside the school on their playground, and the teachers are just intervening at the end. Why are you not doing more to stop it?"
Megan's husband John Jones, 43, added: “This is the result of no-one nipping it in the bud. 90 percent of the videos on that Instagram account were on school grounds.
“The school say, oh, we’ll keep the girls out the corridors for a week. But if our Lily had fallen the other way, and smashed her the back of her head on the curb, as opposed to her front, she could be a vegetable.”
Sussex Police said: “We are aware of this incident, which reportedly occurred in Mewsbrook Park, Littlehampton, around 4.30pm on March 13. Officers have engaged with the victim and her family and provided safeguarding advice, and enquiries are ongoing.”
Littlehampton Academy has been contacted for comment.
