Cassidy Trevan, a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Melbourne’s south, took her own life following a relentless bullying campaign orchestrated by a group of girls at her school.
What began as social media taunts, cruel graffiti on the family home and slaps on the face eventually escalated to a scenario in which a then 13-year-old Cassidy was led to a house and brutally gang raped, her mother has alleges.
Now a powerful letter which was penned by Cassidy ahead of her tragic suicide has emerged.
The letter, which was addressed to all the students at her former school, not only sheds light on her horrific treatment but also urges her fellow pupils to “fight” in the face of adversity.
Discovered on her laptop, the letter reads: “My name is Cassidy Trevan, and I was raped. If anyone ever tries this on you trust me it’s worth fighting! Fight! If you don’t you’ll regret it for the rest of your life like I do. You can do it. Be careful. Be warned. Be safe.”
“I was a student at (name of school omitted) and I was raped by some of the students who still attend that school. I know this already probably sounds like attention-seeking but it’s honestly far from it,” the letter begins.
“My aim is to warn other people (students mostly but also parents) about what happened because I’m worried if they could do it to me they could do it to other kids like me, or at least try to.”
“You actually have the power to stop this from happening.”
Image: Facebook/In loving memory of Cassidy Celeste Trevan.
Image: Facebook/In loving memory of Cassidy Celeste Trevan.
The letter goes on to reveal that Cassidy was bullied even after her mother, Linda Trevan, made the decision to move to a new home and change the teenager’s school three-and-a-half months after the rape.
“I’m also doing this for myself. I want to finally, after one and a half years be left alone,” she wrote.
“I still continue to get students I’ve never met contacting me Facebook calling me a slut. I’ve moved schools, I’ve moved house and still I’m being contacted and bullied.”
The letter, which stops at the point Cassidy was beginning to describe how she was raped, was never sent through to the school in question.
Image: Facebook/In loving memory of Cassidy Celeste Trevan.
Charges were never laid against the alleged perpetrators, despite meeting with detectives from Victoria Police’s Sexual Offence and Child Abuse Investigation Team more than 20 times, according the 9 News.
Cassidy committed suicide in December 2015.
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