A SCHOOLGIRL who claims to have suffered two years of anti-English bullying on a remote Scottish island is preparing to take legal action against the local council for allegedly failing to protect her.

Sophie Parks, 17, claims that she suffered cuts, bruises and broken bones at the hands of fellow pupils on the Isle of Lewis. She said she was so traumatised that she considered suicide. On at least one occasion her injuries were so bad that she was taken to hospital; on another the bullies also allegedly attacked her mother.

Sophie, a confident, fun- loving girl who liked to go for long walks amid the beautiful scenery of the Outer Hebrides, said that the dream of living on an island quickly turned sour as she was repeatedly beaten and called “English bitch” by a gang of up to 15 girls at the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway.

She became a virtual prisoner in her home, refusing to go out and eventually deciding that the only way to escape her ordeal was to leave the island, even though this meant parting from her mother.

The teenager, who has been living with her grandparents near Sheffield since August last year, told The Times yesterday: “It got so bad that I wouldn’t go into town unless I had friends with me. I didn’t have much of a life. There would be people saying ‘English bitch’ behind your back or just screaming ‘f***ing English’ in your face. It was unreal.”

Sophie, who claims that the school repeatedly failed to protect her from bullies, said that she was in the process of registering for legal aid and was determined to take action against the council. Her solicitor, Cameron Fyfe, of the Glasgow firm Ross Harper, confirmed that he had taken a statement from her but was waiting to be told whether to press ahead with the case. A decision is expected early next year after another test case, also involving alleged bullying, is heard before a court in Aberdeen.

Sophie said: “I’m going to push ahead with it [legal action] partly because I don’t want it to happen to anyone else but mainly because I feel the way I was treated by the council and the school wasn’t fair. As far as I was concerned they didn’t make any real effort to stop the bullying, and because of that I had to move 600 miles and to leave my Mum and the friends I did have.”

Sophie’s comments come a week after Molly Campbell, the 12-year-old schoolgirl also known as Misbah Rana who fled the Isle of Lewis to live with her father in Pakistan, and is now at the centre of an international custody battle, claimed that she had suffered racial abuse in Stornoway. Molly had also attended the Nicolson Institute.

The bleak portrayal of island life coincides with a deluge of interest in two properties for rent on the tiny island of Canna, off Skye, home to some of the most beguiling scenery in the Hebrides and a vast array of wildlife.

The National Trust for Scotland, which owns the island, has received more than 300 notes of interest since it advertised for two families to boost the 15-strong population. There have been inquiries from as far away as Australia, while dozens are thought to have come from England.

But despite the attractions of island life, Sophie’s mother said yesterday that the reality of living in a remote community could be far tougher than expected.

A year after her daughter left, Sally Parks, 46, has put her two-bedroom bungalow up for sale and is moving back to the mainland. She said: “We moved here because we thought it was so beautiful and we thought the Scottish education system would be superior. But in fact it was impossible because Sophie wasn’t safe.

“There were times when Sophie was so terrified that she wouldn’t go to school. On one occasion she was beaten so badly that she suffered bruising to her kidneys and had to go to hospital. On another she was head-butted in the face. There were six attacks from one girl alone. At the beginning she was OK but after a while she said she couldn’t take it any more and was beginning to feel that she’d be better off dead.

“One of the girls who bullied my daughter also came up to me in the street, screamed at me that I was an ‘English bitch’ and threw a lit cigarette at me. I couldn’t believe it.”

Sophie and her mother claim that Western Isles Council was repeatedly confronted about the bullying but failed to stop it. Sophie said: “One of the bullies was suspended from school twice, but apart from that they were just told off, given a slap on the hand.”

A spokesman for Western Isles Council refused to comment on the possibility of legal action, but emphasised that it sought to provide a safe environment for all pupils in its schools.

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