Mom of girl who killed herself after she was gang-raped finds devastating note four years later
A second devastating letter that a teenage girl wrote before she took her own life in 2015 has now been found by her heartbroken mother.
Bullies from Cassidy Trevan's school allegedly planned and executed the teen's gang rape when she was only 13 years old. Two years after the horrifying incident, the then 15-year-old girl from Melbourne took her own life. Cassidy had written a letter in the days before her death and shared the torment she went through over the years after the alleged attack.
The Daily Mail reported that a second letter has now been shared and it details the abuse that she faced from schoolyard bullies. In the letter, Cassidy claimed that the bullies repeated attacked her even after she changed schools and homes in an attempt to get away from them.
Cassidy started off her letter by letting everyone know that she was "doing this to be left alone". The letter reads: "I get people I've never met contacting me on Facebook calling me a sl*t. I've moved schools, I've moved house and I'm still being bullied. I was raped. Just last night after one-and-a-half years I still have nightmares over what happened."
The Victoria Police had previously confirmed that its Sexual Offence and Child Abuse Investigation Team had spoken to the teen at least 20 times when she was alive. Cassidy, however, never filed an official statement to the police because she was afraid that her bullies would retaliate.
9News reported that the teen addressed her school's poor response to bullying after she and her mother had reported the alleged gang rape to them.
Cassidy wrote: "Wellington (Secondary College) says they have an anti-bullying policy and a zero tolerance of bullying and yet the (school) did nothing. I never thought year seven, and [year] eight and nine at the time, school kids would be capable or EVER want to do such a thing."
Linda Trevan, Cassidy's mother, had left her teen daughter's room "virtually untouched" in the years that followed her suicide. In preparation for selling the home, however, she began sorting through Cassidy's things and stumbled across the letter.
She said: "I hadn't really touched Cass's room until now but when I picked up a pile of papers on her desk this five-page handwritten note, just on loose blank paper, was so noticeable that it stood out to me straight away so I read it."
The devastated mother said in the years since her child's death, she didn't see much improvement in the way of putting an end to bullying.
She told the publication: "Have things improved regarding Bullying? I've shared so many Bullycides on my Facebook page since Cass died that sometimes I don't feel like I'm making a difference."
"My page has over 10,000 followers now, but that's only scratching the surface. Only a few days ago I shared yet another Bullycide story with my comment 'No, no, no. This just has to stop!'."
Linda currently runs a Facebook page called Bullying Killed My Daughter Cassidy Trevan. On the page, she shares her daughter's tragic story and helps with the fight against bullying.
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