Laura Pendall, 14, hanged herself at her home in Keysoe near Bedford after she was taunted by a gang known as the Popular Group. The inquest in Bedford was told that pupils at Sharnbrook Upper School had taunted Ms Pendall with chants of "Burn the witch" and "Ding, dong, the witch is dead."

She was found dead in her bedroom last December by her mother, Liz, who said yesterday her daughter left a note saying she loved her parents.

Mrs Pendall and her husband Nigel had separated a few months earlier, but she said her daughter seemed to cope well. She said Laura's belief in Wicca was a "teenage girl's passion". "She liked to think she was a white witch. She watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and read books on Wicca."

Her best friend, Briony Rothwell, told the inquest Laura was upset that her parents had split up. "She was also very upset about the teasing about her slight speech impediment and her Wicca beliefs," she said.

The school's headmaster, Peter Barnard, said any bullying Laura suffered was not serious enough to warrant a suicide bid. However, after her death he had a telephone call from parents who had heard that pupils were making bets on who would be next to kill themselves.

Recording a verdict of suicide, Bedford and Luton coroner David Morris said: "I am satisfied that she was affected by the break-up of her parents marriage, and there was something extra - her belief in Wicca."

(Story can be found at http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=276367. )

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