Mother of Phoebe Prince, bullied suicide victim, lashes out in Mass. court
(CBS/WBZ/AP) BOSTON -- Anne O'Brien, the mother of Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old Irish immigrant who hanged herself after being bullied in school, lashed out at one of her daughter's harasser's today in court and described her grief as an "unbelievable pain" that will never go away.
"There is a dead weight that now sits permanently on my chest," O'Brien said through tears at the courtroom, where a judge sentenced two of the six teenagers charged in connection with Prince's death to one year of probation, reports the Boston Globe.
O'Brien accused Sean Mulveyhill, Prince's former classmate who pleaded guilty to harassing Prince, of being in a "predatory" relationship with her daughter - the two had briefly dated, reports the Globe.
While in court O'Brien read one of her daughter's final text messages out loud, which referred to the bullying.
"I think Sean condoning this is one of the final nails in my coffin," Prince wrote. O'Brien's voice cracked with emotion as she read the text, reports the paper.
Three other teens have reached deals in the case and are expected to plead
guilty to a single misdemeanor charge during court hearings Wednesday
and Thursday, the station reports.
But 19-year-old Austin Renaud's case is still slated to go to trial. Renaud, unlike the other teens, only has one charge against him. He is charged with statutory rape for allegedly having sexual contact with Prince. He has denied the allegations, reports CBS station WBZ.
Renaud's lawyer says he has not been offered a plea deal.
Mulveyhill and Kayla Narey were ordered to do 100 hours of community service to help at-risk children, complete their high school education and were barred from profiting from their involvement in the Phoebe Prince case.
Prince, who had moved from Ireland, hanged herself in January 2010 in her family's apartment in South Hadley, about 100 miles west of Boston.
Prosecutors said Flannery Mullins, Sharon Chanon Velazquez and Ashley Longe began harassing Prince at school and on Facebook because she had a brief relationship with Renaud, who had dated Mullins.
Authorities say that on the day of Prince's death, one of the defendants used an obscenity to list her name on a school library sign-in sheet, and others followed her home, taunting her as she cried.
If prosecutors were to offer Renaud a plea deal for the reduced charge of indecent assault and battery on a person over age 14, he still would still have to register as a sex offender, officials say.