By Nigel Pankhurst BBC News

Mollie-Anna suffered months of torment from a school bully

More youngsters than ever before are complaining about bullying, latest figures from children's charity Childline show.

When Kerry Kilsbywhite's daughter Mollie-Anna suffered terrible abuse from another girl at school the mother tackled the situation head-on.

Mollie-Anna's ordeal at the hands of a school bully started nine months ago in her first year at secondary school.

The pupil was subjected to physical beatings, terrifying phone calls and abuse over the internet - all from the same girl.

In the end it took her mother to confront her tormentor directly before the 12-year-old's misery came to an end.

Kerry, from Richmond in Surrey, said: "It started with money being stolen by this one girl and ranged up to physical abuse. She was being beaten up towards the end.

"One of the final incidents was when she phoned me from the toilets at school and I had to listen to my daughter being beaten up.

"I couldn't understand why my daughter was being bullied because she's got a good group of friends.

"There were abusive phone calls which I taped. This girl was saying if Mollie came into school the next day she was going to get beaten up.

"It was just constant. A couple of times the school sent Mollie home because they feared for her safety at the time."

'Cut like a knife'

Kerry realised there was a serious problem, but it was not until Mollie-Anna wrote a heart-felt poem that the situation really hit home.

Why is it me miss? What have I done? I just want to play and walk the other way Read Mollie-Anna's poem

"I knew it was bad but she wrote this poem," she explained. "It cut through me like a knife.

"I thought 'I've got to take action here and I can't put her constantly in this situation'."

The turning point came when the bully was sending Mollie-Anna more abuse over the internet through an instant messaging service.

Normally Kerry would step in and block the girl's messages, but this time she decided to have a heart-to-heart with her on the net.

"I told her that I didn't think her mother would want her to be a bully," she said. "She asked me what that meant. I said that no parent wants their child to be a bully. Then she started asking me what I thought.

"She said she wanted to tell me why she was a bully. I said I just wanted to know a reason. She said it was not because of my daughter, it's because of what was happening at home.

"I felt they were both victims."

Letter of apology

Kerry feels that frank exchange helped the girl see what she was doing was wrong, and incredibly she is now friends with her daughter.

The girl even took it upon herself to write a letter of apology to Mollie-Anna.

Kerry said the bullying had a profound effect on her daughter, who she described as normally happy-go-lucky but who was coming home from school in an aggressive mood and making up "mystery illnesses" in order to stay at home.

Kerry feels the lesson is that parents and teachers must not sweep bullying under the carpet.

"I really think that if your child is being bullied you've got to step up and shout until you're heard," she said.

Niall Cowley, spokesman for the Beatbullying group, said the message is for young people to seek help if they are being bullied.

"What we are trying to tell parents is to create an environment at home where young people can talk about this," he said.

Mollie-Anna's poem:

Make her stop mummy
Make her go away
Please Miss Oats I don't want to go out to play.
Why is it me Miss?
What have I done?
I just want to play and walk the other way
She is following me Miss
She punches me to the ground
My nose is bleeding
there's no-one around.
My name she calls I fall against the wall
Calling me names I start to bawl
She has gone finally I am free
I run home and
MY MUMMY SAVES ME