A mum has slammed a gang of bullies who preyed upon her 11-year-old son in a park and physically assaulted him.
The mum only found out her son had been attacked after she was shown footage of the abuse by another parent. Sharon, said the attack happened on April 16, when her son was at a park in Buttermere, Chorley, Lancashire.
The area has previously seen an incident where a different boy was forced to kiss and lick the shoes of another group of children, reports Lancs Live.
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Sharon says her 11-year-old "isn't a small boy," but believes the two bullies that attacked him are still in primary school. She also says she wasn't aware of the attack that happened to her son, until another parent sent her the videos, saying she was "absolutely heartbroken" to watch them.
She added: "I didn’t even know it had happened until a parent who lives near the park sent me the videos. I was absolutely heartbroken watching it. I was heartbroken my son went through all that alone. He did so well not to hit out, he just stood there and took it all - absolutely heartbroken."
Sharon puts some of the blame onto the parents of the children that harassed her child, saying it "wouldn't have happened" if some responsibility was taken.
"The parents are not taking responsibility for their children’s actions," Sharon continued. "They are either ignoring what happened or saying their child did nothing wrong, while getting their friends to threaten me via messages.
"This wouldn’t have got this far if the parents took responsibility for their children and stopped them from continuing bullying different children. The amount of messages I’ve received from other parents in my area that have had the same sort of dealings with the same gang - to the point their children won’t play out anymore."
The children involved in the harassment of Sharon's son and the videoing of the incident are believed to be aged between 10 and 13, and attend several schools nearby. Sharon says her 11-year-old, who attends a different school in the town, "didn't do anything to provoke or cause this to happen".
The mum-of-three said she received the video showing the abuse whilst at work. She said: "I was at work, my friend messaged me as she received a message from her cousin who lives near the park, telling her he had been bullied.
"Obviously, I didn't know to what extent. I tried to phone his dad, but he didn't answer as he was with our young girls at home." At this point, Sharon phoned her son instead, asking if he was OK and telling him to go home.
When they both returned to their house, Sharon asked him what had happened, but was met with a shrug, meaning she was non-the-wiser until she received the video evidence. After watching it, Sharon asked her son about the incident, who was "humiliated by the whole thing."
She added: "He told me he was playing on the park with his friend, when they came over to him and started pushing him around. His friend took a step back, which is understandable as there was seven of them, although you only see the girls in the video.
"They threatened to beat him up unless he came home to steal money off us so they could all buy e-cigs. My son said he wouldn’t steal from us, that’s when they started to provoke him into hitting one of the girls.
"He wouldn’t hit out, he tried to walk away. They wouldn’t let him, so they then started filming the attack."
Sharon says the whole ordeal has left her son not wanting to go out, despite previously going out "pretty much every weekend".
"He doesn’t want to play out any time soon," she continued. "This has definitely damaged him mentally and emotionally. He's upstairs the majority of the time.
"We think with them screaming and swearing in his face like they did, they wanted him to hit out for the camera, but it didn’t work out that way. My boy knows right from wrong.
"He went out pretty much every weekend and the odd day after school. He's not even mentioned wanting to play out since this happened, nor even mentioned playing in the garden with his sisters."
A spokesperson for Lancashire Constabulary said: "This incident is being investigated by an officer who has documented plans to have the people involved spoken to. Support from Early Intervention will be put in place. Local NPT are aware and will continue to patrol the area and local parks as part of ongoing reassurance and anti-social behaviour patrols."
The schools, the victim, and assailants all attend have been contacted by LancsLive for comment.
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