Bullied on Facebook, Australian teen jumps on rail track

MELBOURNE - A 16-year-old Australian boy jumped onto a railway track in an “absolute act of desperation” after he was bullied in a vicious Facebook campaign for several months.

Another boy, aged 17, saved the boy’s life as he pulled him out of the tracks at the Gardenvale railway station in Melbourne’s suburb Brighton, the boy’s mother said.

The boy’s mother, known only by her first name Karen, told a radio programme Thursday that her son had been the target of a cyber and school bullying campaign over the past several months, Herald Sun reported.

Karen said her son had walked his girlfriend to the railway station to see her safely onto a city-bound train, when his assailants attacked him.

“They held his girlfriend back, while the assailant went for my son. He was hit so he fell to the ground and he was kicked multiple times in the back,” she said.

While at least 20 people witnessed the attack, they just stood by and did nothing except one yelled out “someone please help him”.

As the boy continued to be hit repeatedly, he leapt onto the railway tracks, before another boy, named Sam Porter rushed to his aid from the other side of the platform.

“I wasn’t prepared to just stand by while someone was bashed. I’ve been brought up better than that, and I’m surprised that no one else jumped in. I’m disappointed, in fact,” Porter was quoted as saying.

Karen said her son’s act was “an absolute act of desperation and humiliation” as it happened in front of so many people.

The boy was taunted and “false rumours and comments” were posted against him on Facebook for the past several months, she said.