Mother says son with developmental delay was lured into public attack

WEYMOUTH, Mass. – An 11-year-old boy is recovering from injuries after his friends invited him to hang out then ended up attacking him.

Police tell Boston 25 News they are investigating what happened to Marton John Coulson last month when he was punched and kicked while someone recorded a video.

“They were like ‘let’s go somewhere today.’ I said ‘OK, let’s go there,’” Marton said.

“There” was Legion Field in Weymouth. Marton had no clue about what was about to happen.

“I said hi, and one of my friends started to, messing around with me, tipping my hat over or whatever. In my head I was like ‘I need to get back home before anything gets out of hand,’” the 11-year-old told Boston 25 News reported Evan White.

Marton is soft spoke and developmentally delayed.

“The video, I saw it and I just started crying and shaking,” his mother Tara Coulson said. “The first half, it looks like it’s kind of horsing around. But then it got way taken out of hand.”

Coulson couldn’t believe the beating her son endured. Video of the attack was sent to her from someone who was at the field that day. She said a Weymouth police officer told her there’s little they can do.

“The video doesn't show, um, a lot of physical harm. We see them horsing around and it definitely got taken out of hand,” she said.

Coulson said her son knows some of the boys from school, but this happened away from campus. She says it’s hard to know what sparked the attack if it was because of her son’s disability or not

“I don’t know if it was because of the delay, I don’t know,” she said.

Police told Boston 25 News they are continuing to look into the matter, and that Marton’s middle school ordered the other boys to have no contact with him - which he says has helped so far.

Marton told Boston 25 News he didn’t want the boys to get in trouble, but that they must know that their actions were wrong. His mother feels the other boys should have to do community service.

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