Two of six US teenagers charged in connection with the case of an Irish immigrant teenager, Phoebe Prince, who killed herself after being bullied, has pleaded guilty to criminal harassment and was sentenced to a year on probation.
Sean Mulveyhill, 18, who once dated Phoebe, was ordered by a juvenile court in Northampton, Massachusetts, to do 100 hours' community service to help children at risk, complete his high school education and barred from profiting from his involvement in Phoebe's suicide.
Kayla Narey is expected to entered her plea later and received a similar sentence.
Phoebe, 15, hanged herself in January 2010 in her family's apartment in South Hadley, about 100 miles west of Boston.
Prosecutors said she had been endlessly bullied at school for months.
As part of the plea bargain, prosecutors dropped civil rights charges against Mulveyhill.
‘There is a dead weight that now sits permanently in my chest,’ Phoebe's mother, Anne O'Brien, said through tears after the hearing.
Three other teenagers have reached deals in the case. The sixth teenager's case is still pending.
The family agreed to the pleas because it involved the teenagers admitting a crime had occurred and to avoid the pain of having to sit through trials, Ms O'Brien said.
Getting an admission that a crime had occurred was important to Phoebe's family, Assistant District Attorney Stephen Gagne said.
Mr Gagne said Mulveyhill ‘acknowledges his conduct went far beyond what constitutes normal and acceptable high school behaviour.’
Vincent Bongiorni, Mulveyhill's lawyer, said the plea accurately reflected what his client did.
‘I think the recommendation being made to the court is a fair and equitable one, given the entirety of the circumstances,’ Mr Bongiorni said.
