'Boys spat in my son's face and he was branded a rapist and a paedo when his ... trends now

One warm night in June 2022, our 14-year-old son, Hugo, appeared in our bedroom in the early hours, distraught because he'd just contemplated committing suicide.

'If I jump from my bedroom window on to the ground below, would I die?' he had wondered.

Such was his distress, he could barely get his words out between sobs. His father, James, and I were devastated, but we gently helped him articulate his anguish and then hugged him tightly. We cried and talked until dawn.

The reason for this traumatic episode was rooted in events of a month earlier, when Hugo had been accused of 'forceful sexual assault' by a girl in his class at his state secondary school in Oxfordshire.

He and Holly had been dating when she made the accusation, but the school — confident that there was no evidence against him and that his horrified ­reaction was indicative of his innocence — had dismissed her claims and urged the pair of them to stay away from one another. Meanwhile, we hoped the rumours would subside and the atmosphere would be less hostile after half term.

But, on the contrary, things escalated. In the playground and corridors, Hugo was repeatedly branded everything from a 'rapist' to a 'paedo' — a word bandied around freely by his generation as an insult. Boys spat in his face, kicked and punched him and threatened to beat him up after school, while girls sneered and engaged in their own name-calling.

Those who didn't intimidate Hugo with threats of physical violence ostracised him instead.

Previously, he'd been a popular boy who loved sport and music and had a natural flair for both. Now, his popularity — his credibility — was utterly ruined.

Kids can be vicious and now they were making him a scapegoat for other things, too, reporting him for damaging property at school and blaming him for ­incidents in the playground that were nothing to do with him.

Unable to eat, he began to lose weight. Each day he'd return home with the contents of his packed lunch untouched. He'd push food around his plate at home, and had the gaunt, haunted look of a boy who was too ­troubled to sleep.

For weeks, I watched my son's mental health crumble. James and I had spoken to the school — asking them to document the situation lest Holly or her parents should make a formal complaint against Hugo.

We had also tried to launch our own investigation into what had gone on. But we were powerless to stop our son spiralling into the despair that brought him to our bedroom that June night.

Despite his distress, he insisted on going to school the next day. In his words: 'It will only get worse if I stay away, Mum.'

After dropping him outside the school gates — ordinarily he'd get the bus — I went home and called the Samaritans. Though he had told us his suicidal thoughts had scared him so deeply he no longer felt so abjectly desperate, I felt a knot of terrifying anxiety in the pit of my stomach.

Knowing that none of it had been Hugo's fault, but that I couldn't solve it for him, has been the lowest point of my life as his mother.

The reason I'm now speaking out about my family's experience is to warn other parents of pre-teen or teenage boys. It's my hope that what happened to us will make them carefully consider how to equip their sons for a post-#MeToo school environment in which, sadly, there are some girls so troubled, naive or plain spiteful that they cry wolf — and in doing so ruin a young boy's life, ­unwittingly or otherwise.

Our story began in early 2022 when Hugo became enamoured with Holly when they were both in Year 9.

They sang in the school choir together, had both been selected for the swimming squad and had landed parts in the annual drama production, meaning they had to spend a lot of time together.

James and I have always been very open with Hugo — our only child — and no subject is taboo at home. For example, if anything cropped up in the news or on TV about teenage boys being accused of rape or assault, we'd tell him it was important to be careful as he got older and started dating girls, always ensuring that any physical contact is consensual.

When there were lessons or talks at school about sex, porn or online safety, we'd follow them up with conversations at home, paying particular attention to the perils of texting and social media.

 When there were lessons or talks at school about sex, porn or online safety, we'd follow them up with conversations at home

We emphasised that Hugo must never engage in sexting or sending explicit photos, and that, in our view, sex should always be ­loving. He was always receptive and happy to engage in our chats, reciprocating our openness by confiding in us about anything that puzzled or worried him.

Holly was the first girl he'd ever shown any interest in.

In spring 2022, Hugo eventually summoned the courage to ask her if she'd like to go bowling with him. After that, they hung out together as boyfriend and girlfriend, always with our knowledge and that of her parents, who had seemed perfectly lovely when we'd met them at an open-air concert the summer before.

After around a month of being together, Holly's best friend, Sophie, casually asked Hugo in conversation at school what he and Holly had been getting up to, in the way young teenagers can be curious and nosy about that sort of thing.

Naively, Hugo blurted out that they'd kissed and touched each other — although he remains ­adamant that there was 'nothing below the waist' — and when Sophie reported this back to Holly, she went ballistic. Furious that he'd betrayed her confidence, she no longer wanted anything to do with him.

Terribly upset, Hugo confided in us. He said he loved Holly and wanted her back, but told us that people at school were saying she had accused him of a 'forceful ­sexual assault'.

Of course, I immediately wanted to defend my son, but I wasn't willing to do so until I was armed with the facts.

Then Holly's mother messaged me to say Hugo had shared ­private photos of him and Holly online with other people, implying that the pictures had been of an ­intimate nature.

She told me Hugo was 'evil' and that we should examine how we'd brought him up.

She also threatened to call the police, which was terrifying.

In an effort to disarm her, I thanked her politely for her messages and told her we'd discuss it with both the school and Hugo.

But he remained adamant that he hadn't

read more from dailymail.....