I am applying to PhD programs for the Fall 2024 cycle in the US. However, I am very worried because I was a PhD candidate in Europe for 6 months and I left because of harassment and bullying. I was doing an Industrial PhD candidate and it was my Industrial tutor who kept sending me threatening emails and late night whatsapp messages to the point I could not focus anymore. I then talked to the university's confidential trusted advisor who advised me to leave because it was clear (from the whatsapp messages and threatening emails) that I could not work in that type of environment anymore. My main question is Do I mention I was a PhD candidate and left because I was bullied? Or do I simply put I was a research assistant a X university? I want to tell the truth mainly because I did very well those 6 months and proved to be a good researcher and want to say on my application my accomplishments there. I also want to tell the truth because it is not fair what happened to me and it is not my fault. Also, I not cannot get a reference from even my supervisor because he was upset I left the PhD candidate because he will lose the funding. Will a future university call my previous university? I have excellent reference letters from my Masters program, so I have 3 total but it would look odd that I don't have a reference letter from my previous PhD program. Any advice  ?

I am applying to PhD programs for the fall 2024 cycle in the US. However, I am very worried because I previously was a PhD candidate in Europe for 6 months. I left because of harassment and bullying. I was doing an industrial PhD and it was my industrial tutor who kept sending me threatening emails and late night whatsapp messages to the point I could not focus anymore. I talked to the university's confidential trusted advisor who advised me to leave because it was clear (from the whatsapp messages and threatening emails) that I could not work in that type of environment anymore. 

My main question is, do I mention that I was a PhD candidate and left because I was bullied? Or should I simply state that I was a research assistant at university X? I want to tell the truth mainly because I did very well in those 6 months and proved to be a good researcher. In my application, I want to be able to list my accomplishments there. I also want to tell the truth because it is neither fair what happened to me nor my fault. I cannot even get a reference from my supervisor because he was upset I left the PhD position and he will now lose the funding. Will a future university call my previous university? I have excellent reference letters from my masters program, so I have 3 in total, but it would look odd that I don't have a reference letter from my previous PhD program. Any advice?