Are Bullies Guilty Of Murder?

[parkie]

Friday evenings I help out at a youth club for 11-15 year olds at our church. Tonight was so emotional. A mutual friend of many of the children, a fourteen year old boy, apparently committed suicide yesterday morning after being bullied at school. He had a twin brother.
If only these bullies realised the long lasting damage they caused to individuals and their families.
It was heart-breaking to see those kids in tears.

[Ann]

How sad for them all parkie, and difficult for you too, to comfort them but also to help them come to terms with it all and to respond in a Christian way their questions "Why did God let this happen?"
We have had similar situations (not as bad) within our Church Youth groups so I do sympathise with you.

[FredPuli43]

Not murder, but it might be just be possible, in some cases, to get home on manslaughter. Another, and more promising, possibility is counselling or encouraging suicide, depending on what the bullies said; you can imagine that a bully would say "Why don't you kill yourself?" as part of the threatening or bullying conduct.Otherwise you're stuck with the various crimes that involve threats.

[cecil39]

I think that constant ill treatment of any kind by children or adults that leads to suicide should be classed as manslaughter, don't matter what form the abuse takes, making the life of another person utterly miserable, so they don't think they can face it any longer is inhuman, even worse if that person thinks he/she has no one to turn to, no one on their side to back them up, and of course it leave those left behind feeling guilty because they did not help or never noticed there was a problem or hoped that someone else would sort it, I have been in both situations, life is so hard sometimes.