Campaigners issue warning after inquest hears how troubled North-East schoolgirl was found hanging in her bedroom

ANTI-BULLYING campaigners last night warned of the dangers of name-calling after an inquest heard a teenage girl found hanging in her bedroom had been taunted.

Kelsey Jade Winter, 13, was found by her stepfather with a belt around her neck at her home in Barnard Castle, on August 12, last year.

At the inquest into her death at Bishop Auckland Magistrates' Court yesterday, Durham Coroner Andrew Tweddle heard that the Teesdale School student had coloured her hair and wore heavy foundation to try to hide her natural ginger hair and freckles.

But that did not stop the taunts from children at her school.

Kelsey's mother, Carol-Anne Winter, said that her daughter had been upset in the run-up to her death because of the teasing.

"She was being called ginger and freckle face and pig nose. She thought she was ugly but she wasn't ugly at all," said Mrs Winter.

"We got her hair died and she used foundation to try and stop the names. But she just used to break down and cry and get upset about it."

Last night, Liz Carnell, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, director of the charity Bullying UK, warned that bullying and name-calling could have a "dripdrip"

effect on young people.

"People think they can call somebody a name and it's forgotten about," she said.

"It isn't because people then go home and they brood over these things, and it might not be the only name that they have been called that day. These things have a cumulative effect."

A spokesperson for the NSPCC said: "Bullying destroys the lives of many children who carry the emotional damage into adulthood.

It is one of the many reasons children call our Childline service, with counsellors handling around 3,000 calls on the problem every month."

Christine Pratt, chief executive of the National Bullying Helpline, said the charity will launch a campaign later this year urging children to confront, record and inform people about bullying.

"Sadly it isn't an uncommon occurrence in the playground,"

she said.

Yesterday's inquest was told it was not the first time that Kelsey, described by her parents as hardworking and bubbly, had tried to harm herself. Two months before her death, she had put a belt around her neck and tightened it, but freed herself.

The teenager had been attending sessions with a school counsellor, Val Edwards, who, giving evidence at the inquest, said the teenager felt ashamed for trying to harm herself.

"She said she wanted to end it all and changed her mind," Mrs Edwards told the court.

"She realised she didn't want to die and she wasn't suicidal.

She was terrified of what she had done."

But Mrs Winter, Mrs Edwards and Louise Hamilton, a pastoral worker at Teesdale School, in Barnard Castle, all agreed they thought the teasing was nothing to be too concerned about.

"It was nothing out of the ordinary.

I didn't have any concerns about her at all." said Mrs Edwards, who last saw Kelsey just before school broke up for summer.

"At the end of term, she seemed to be feeling a lot better.

Apart from the incident with the belt, her situation seemed to be getting a lot better."

Yesterday's inquest was also told that Kelsey had been badly affected by the deaths of her two uncles in 2006 and 1998.

"That was a big thing to her.

She couldn't understand why everybody we loved died," said Mrs Winter.

Recording an open verdict, Mr Tweddle said there was a possibility Kelsey had changed her mind about taking her life, but acted too late.

"Here we have a girl who is clearly very troubled. She had previously put a belt around her neck and didn't like it." he said.

"Given that she had tried once and changed her mind, in my opinion there might be a possibility she might have thought about it again.

"The window of opportunity in which one has the ability to change one's mind is a very, very short one indeed."