A TEENAGE girl has been withdrawn from school after she claimed to be a victim of bullies who threatened to kill her by text message.

Nicola Wilson, 15, said she has been bombarded with terrifying messages on her mobile phone for the past six months.

Now her father Dave is keeping her off Bowland High School, Grindleton, claiming his daughter's life is being ruined by the anonymous culprits. Nicola has not attended for three weeks.

She is said to have received dozens of abusive calls and threats such as "you're going to die" have been made by text messages.

Mr Wilson, who runs the village post office in Barrow, said Nicola had also been bullied at her school Bowland High School, in Grindleton. He said there should be tighter restrictions on what can be sent via text messaging.

Mr Wilson said: "With mobile phones you can receive any message but you don't necessarily know who it is from and it can't be traced."

The Orange network, which Nicola subscribes to, has a malicious call department to deal with such incidents and today urged Nicola to get in touch. A spokesman said: "Callers have the option of changing their number free of charge or involving the police."

Mr Wilson said since the bullying is alleged to have started more than six months ago his daughter's personality had completely changed.

He said: "She has gone from a girl who used to love going to school into someone who doesn't want to know. It's terrible."

Mr Wilson said the extent of the bullying would vary -- on some days Nicola's phone would constantly be receiving messages.

He said: "One night Nicola was constantly getting messages and it got to the stage she was dreading opening her messages."

Nicola informed her form teacher as soon as the bullying started and then two weeks later her father got in touch with the headteacher, and has been in regular contact with the school since. He also contacted the education welfare officer with his concerns.

Mr Wilson admitted he confronted the girl he thought was reponsible for the text messages on the school bus, but apologised for his actions after speaking to the headteacher.

He said: "Looking back with hindsight maybe I shouldn't have confronted this girl, but I just lost my temper as any father would."

Mr Wilson says he feels the teachers have not acted to resolve the situation. He has kept Nicola away from school and now she does not want to return. He has told the education department that his daughter will not be attending school and why. She is due to sit her GCSEs in May and Mr Wilson is confident she will be able to complete her revision at home.

Mr Wilson said: "At least she is not living in fear and she can concentrate on her work. I have reported the matter to the police in the hope that their involvement can put an end to this."

A Bowland High spokesman said: "We take any allegation of bullying very seriously and have been praised by Ofsted for the swift and effective way these small number of cases are dealt with.

"It would be inappropriate to comment in detail about matters relating to individual pupils but in cases such as these we make every effort to bring the parents into school to discuss the allegations and seek a resolution; the parents who complained of bullying in this case said that they were too busy to attend. At the same time we would take disciplinary measures against any pupil found to have acted in an unacceptable manner."

Mr Wilson admitted the school had requested meetings which he hasn't been able to attend because "he had lost faith in them."

Although the bulk of text messaging is done between mobile phones it can also be done via certain internet websites and it is frighteningly easy.

After logging on to one website that has received extensive television advertising, our reporter followed the simple instructions and within minutes he was registered and able to send messages to mobile phones with no way of them replying.

A statement on the website warns: "Under the 1988 Malicious Communication Act individuals who use the free SMS service to send abusive messages can be traced upon request from the police and are liable for prosecution."