A boy who shot to fame after turning the tables on a bully at his high school, body slamming the tormentor onto concrete, has told how years of bullying had pushed him to the edge.
Casey Heynes, a 15-year-old from Chifley College Dunheved Campus in Sydney's west, shot to fame after a video was released on the internet showing him body slamming a smaller boy who repeatedly hit him.
The video quickly became an internet hit, with hundreds of thousands of people watching it, many of whom were sympathetic to Casey's situation.
But speaking on A Current Affair last night, Casey said while he was glad of the recent support, last year he considered suicide.
"I just started to put myself down to that level and then all the crap kept on piling on," he said.
He said he had been tormented by bullies since he was in second grade and despite making friends early in high school, they had abandoned him and he was picked on nearly every day.
"I have been duct-taped to a pole ... They put the duct tape over my eyes first, and then dropped me down and duct taped me to a pole," he said.
Casey, who was taunted because of his weight, said he was an easy target because he had not in the past retaliated.
But that all changed after a smaller boy repeatedly hit him recently.
"He just came up out of nowhere and grabbed me by the shirt and then he punched me in the face. Then he went for a second hit, and I blocked it," Casey recounted.
"The third hit, I don't know if he connected, and then the fourth and fifth hit me, and then I actually snapped and grabbed him," he said.
Casey can be seen in the video advancing towards the smaller boy, picking him up and throwing him aggressively onto concrete ground.
The action has seen Casey dubbed "Casey the Punisher", or "Zangief" - the name of a fictional wrestler in a video game.
The bully sustained only a grazed knee in the altercation.
Casey's father Colin said he was proud his son has finally stood up to the bullying, and the support Casey had received had already changed his son's demeanour and self-esteem.
