Schoolboy who killed himself did other pupils' homework, court told
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Version 0 of 1. An 11-year-old boy who killed himself amid claims he was being bullied at school had been doing other pupils’ homework for payment, a court has heard. Asad Khan was found by his mother after she forced her way through the locked door to his bedroom at their home in Bradford on 28 September. Relatives have said the “very bright, sensitive and loving” schoolboy had been bullied and was reluctant to attend his new school, Beckfoot Upper Heaton, where he had been a pupil for just three weeks. A pre-inquest review at Bradford coroner’s court heard on Tuesday that Asad’s mother, Farheen Khan, had raised concerns about the amount of homework he was doing in the days before his death. The coroner, Martin Fleming, was told that Asad may have been bullied for up to two weeks before he killed himself. Addressing the coroner through a police family liaison officer, Asad’s father, Mahmood Asif, said: “Leading up to Asad’s death mum had seen Asad doing quite a lot of homework. “Mum asked him why he got so much homework and he said he was doing it for someone and he was going to get small payment for it.” Asif told the coroner that two of Asad’s friends had come forward recently to corroborate the suggestion that he had been bullied. Asad is said to have told a friend from his local mosque that he was being bullied at school a day or two before his death, the court heard. Asif said one of Asad’s schoolfriends claimed to have heard the 11-year-old tell a teacher that “someone bullying me, somebody troubling me” and ask why no action had been taken. The hearing heard that detectives have found no CCTV to support claims from a witness who reputedly saw Asad being beaten up in the school playground hours before his death. Detectives discounted those claims after speaking to the witness in October. Fleming said he intended to call at least two fellow pupils to give evidence at the inquest as well as the school’s headmaster, Simon Wade. A further pre-inquest review is set to take place on 27 February at Bradford coroner’s court. Relatives have described how Asad told his mother that he wanted to change schools when he returned home on Wednesday 28 September. She found him unresponsive in his bedroom shortly after 4pm. Thousands of people attended Asad’s funeral on 3 October, many wearing anti-bullying T-shirts. Two days after the funeral his mother described Asad as her “greatest strength and support” and added: “I witnessed him giving up, I cried for help, prayed he would start breathing, looked at the doctors with hope that they would save him but his time was up. “To be told that your child was being bullied. The questions surrounding my mind are: ‘What must he have gone through during his last hours? What happened to him that he took such a drastic step?’ “The pain, the helplessness. Why would anybody bully him? He was harmless. Asad would not leave the house without hugging and kissing me. His love for his parents was beyond explanation. “It is when I am alone with his memories that I cry. I am no longer able to step into my own house, the room where it all took place.” |