A plastic surgeon reshaped the nose of a 14-year-old girl who was being bullied and gave breast implants to other girls who had been teased about their appearance, it emerged yesterday.

Douglas McGeorge, president of the British Association of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery, said that many teenagers were victims of bullying and just wanted to look normal. “You think about children whose ears stick out. Children are very cruel and there’s a lot of stigma attached to appearance.”

He told the London Evening Standard that the 14-year-old from Essex had been bullied about her nose at three schools. “She was starting a new school . . . and wanted to fit in. I bumped into her later on and she was very confident.” He said that it was an unusual case: “It is clearly not a solution routinely offered for bullying.”

He also disclosed that he had given teenagers expandible breast implants.

Antibullying charities said that young people should not have to resort to surgery. “This case starkly highlights the need for government, schools and parents to work together to tackle the issue,” the NSPCC said.

A survey of 40 plastic surgeons found that more than a quarter had seen between five and teen teenage patients in the past year.

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