Disbelief and grief as boy, 11, takes own life

Published on Friday 25 April 2008 23:52

WITH a face full of freckles and his hair closely cropped, Paul Meek looks like any other 11-year-old schoolboy, posing for the camera as if he hadn't a care in the world.

But last night his parents, Tony and Marie Meek, were said to be inconsolable with grief as they fought to come to terms with the tragic suicide of their young son.

The schoolboy was found hanging in his bedroom at his parents' home in Downfield, Dundee, early on Thursday evening.

Paul's family were being comforted yesterday by relatives and friends at their tenement home. A clearly distraught Mrs Meek said: "Please just leave us alone to grieve for our son – please."

Last night, the residents of the community on the Kirkton housing estate were shocked by the tragedy.

One neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: "Folk around here are just absolutely devastated about what has happened.

"He just seemed a perfectly normal and happy little boy. His family must be inconsolable. He seemed quite a popular young lad."

Paul was a pupil at Sidlaw View primary school. The school hit the headlines last year following claims that drug addicts were wandering the corridors and teachers were being attacked daily by pupils.

Linda Ross, the school's depute head-teacher, was suspended after her husband, Vic Ross, contacted the media about problems at the school.

An independent inquiry, ordered by Dundee City Council, concluded last December that the allegations were exaggerated, but it conceded there had been 36 reports of physical and verbal abuse at Sidlaw View over a school year.

One mother said: "Nobody knows what exactly happened (to Paul]. But he went to Sidlaw primary and it's a bad school with a lot of bullying and that sort of thing.