Nine teenagers have been charged in the US in connection with the death of a Co Clare schoolgirl in Massachusetts earlier this year.

Seven of the accused are girls and three of the nine are juveniles.

Four girls and two boys face charges including statutory rape, assault and stalking.

Phoebe Prince, 15, who was originally from Fanore in west Clare, took her own life on 14 January.

She had allegedly endured weeks of bullying on the social networking forum Facebook, via text messages and in the corridors of South Hadley High School.

The teenager and her family had moved from Fanore to South Hadley, where they have relatives, last year.

District Attorney in South Hadley, Elizabeth Scheibel, said that the suspects' 'relentless activity directed toward Phoebe was designed to humiliate her and to make it impossible for her to remain at school'.

She added: 'Their conduct far exceeded the limits of normal teenage relationship related quarrels.'