Susan Boyle: I was bullied and beaten

Susan Boyle, the Scottish church worker who rose to fame on Britain's Got Talent, has spoken about being beaten by teachers and taunted for her learning difficulties.

She said: "You're looking at someone who would get the belt every day. 'Will you shut up, Susan!' – whack!'

''I was often left behind at school because of one thing or another. I was a slow learner.

''I'm just I'm a wee bit slower at picking things up than other people. So you get left behind in a system that just wants to rush on, you know? That was what I felt was happening to me.

''There was discipline for the sake of discipline back then. But it's all very different now. I think teachers are taught to understand children with learning disabilities a lot better.''

The 48-year-old singer from Blackburn, West Lothian stunned audiences with her rendition of I Dreamed A Dream on the ITV show.

She came second in the competition, behind dance troupe Diversity, but won over fans around the world including Demi Moore and Elaine Paige.

She initially struggled with her sudden fame, and checked into The Priory for exhaustion following the show.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror about her experiences of being bullied at school, she said: ''There's nothing worse than another person having power over you by bullying you and you not knowing how to get rid of that thing.''

The singer, who has a new album released next week, also described how she used her faith to cope with the death of her mother Bridget in 2007.

She said: ''After mum died it didn't fully register until maybe six months after. That's when the loneliness set in and there was nobody around except my cat Pebbles. When you lose someone as powerful as your mum you feel as if a part of you is taken away and that does things to your confidence.

''My confidence was pretty down at that time. A good way of levelling it out, I found, was to tell myself that even though she's not here physically, mentally and spiritually she is.

''That's what keeps you going. I have my faith, which is the backbone of who I am, really.''

Ms Boyle's album is already expected to be the most pre-ordered of all time, with global sales thought to be in excess of 100,000.

She is also set to appear on the X Factor this weekend.