A TEENAGE girl has spoken exclusively to The Echo about the events that led to her attempting to take her own life earlier this year.

The girl, from a rural part of the county, spoke to this newspaper with her mother.

Mary (not her real name) said she felt it was her only option at the time as “no-one was listening to her” with regard to her complaints of being bullied.

Appealing to other people in the community suffering from depression to “talk to someone they trust” and emphasizing that suicide is not the answer the girl outlined the events that led to her attempt at suicide.

It started with her being harassed by a neighbour and developed into incidents of cyber bullying.

When Mary spoke to The Echo she said she was aware of issues involving the neighbour and her parents but said up to the point she was harassed the incidents had not involved her.

“Up to that point I knew there were issues but up until then it hadn’t directly affected me,” said Mary.

“The neighbour started verbally abusing me and I was really scared,” she added.

“At one point I thought I was in danger of being physically attacked or worse.”

Mary’s mother, Rachel (not her real name) also highlighted her disappointment with Wexford Co. Council which was aware of the situation but according to her didn’t do enough to resolve the situation.

“This has been ongoing for the last few years and there have been issues with this neighbour that the local authority is fully aware of but still hasn’t done anything about it.”

Rachel also highlighted the fact the HSE won’t be in a position to offer direct assistance to her daughter for at least three months: “We’ve had Mary talk to a counselor once since she came home but it’s one we paid for but the HSE said they can’t help her but might be able to do something in three months time.”

(For the full story see this week’s print edition of The Echo)