Top economist from exclusive bank forced to change Hong Kong schools over daughter's bullying: claims HK$500,000 spent in ordeal

The top economist at one of the world's oldest and most exclusive banks says bullying has forced his 11-year-old daughter out of an English Schools Foundation school - and that her ordeal has cost his family half a million dollars.

Mark McFarland, who is global chief economist at Coutts & Co private bank, claims the substantial extra costs were incurred taking the girl out of Kennedy School in Pok Fu Lam - where the alleged bullying took place - moving to a new home and enrolling her in a new school.

The details emerged yesterday at a Small Claims Tribunal hearing at which McFarland is seeking HK$43,445 from the school principal and the foundation's chief executive officer who he claims were "negligent and unwilling to make changes to guarantee child safety".

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He and his aromatherapist wife, Irene Li, said the principal suggested their daughter - who suffered "nightmares and panic attacks" - leave Kennedy School.

The couple say they paid a deposit of HK$16,000 to secure a place for their youngest daughter at the foundation's West Island School in January. They are also claiming assorted costs linked to that move.

At a preliminary session attended by both parents yesterday, tribunal adjudicator Daniel Chan Wai-shun said he would need a statement from the girl herself at the hearing proper. "The statement should be from the daughter and not second-hand evidence," said Chan.

He claimed the documents the parents had provided indicated the child had encountered bullying incidents at school between November last year and January this year. She was also a target of cyberbullying, after someone accessed her email account illegitimately and sent malicious mail in her name to other students and parents.

Bullying linked to a "killing game", the nature of which was not fully explained, is also alleged.