In the wake of a case of cyberbullying that ended in the death of a 12-year-old Florida girl last month, the boyfriend of one of the bullying suspects says he wishes he could have prevented the tragedy.
John Borgen, 13, of Lakeland, Fla., is currently dating the 14-year-old girl charged in connection with Rebecca Ann Sedwick's suicide on Sept. 9. But before he dated the alleged bully, Borgen told ABC News that he also dated Sedwick.
This love triangle may have fueled the bullies' fire, and Borgen said not a day goes by that he doesn't wonder if there was something he could have done differently.
"I think about her [Rebecca] almost every day," Borgen told ABC News, adding, "I could have stopped it."
Florida authorities allege that as many as 15 girls bullied Sedwick online. Borgen's girlfriend and another girl are accused of being the ringleaders; both girls have been charged with felony aggravated stalking.
In an interview with Tampa Bay station News 10, Borgen admitted he knew Sedwick's classmates were ganging up on her, but he never suspected anything like this would happen.
"It shocked me, it made me mad because she should have just told somebody," Borgen said to News 10.
Police were led to the 14-year-old suspect after she allegedly boasted about tormenting Sedwick on Facebook, per The Associated Press. "Yes, I bullied Rebecca and she killed herself," the girl is said to have posted.
Speaking with ABC, Borgen said at first he didn't want to believe his girlfriend could possibly have written such hateful words.
"I thought somebody else did it," he said. "I thought somebody hacked her account, but when she was being charged and arrested, I was like why didn't she tell the police that somebody got into her account or got her password or something?"
The older suspect's parents have steadfastly defended their daughter, claiming she is a "good girl" who has been falsely accused. In response, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd stated that far from showing remorse for the incident, the 14-year-old was “very cold, had no emotion at all upon her arrest,” according to The Washington Post. Police also denied any suggestion that the suspect's Facebook account had been hacked.
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