Six boys were victims of multiple sex abuse at a top fee-paying school in Northern Ireland, a report revealed today.
Pupils aged 10 were assaulted by a prefect in the dormitories of Cabin Hill, the preparatory school of Campbell College in east Belfast.
Even though the then headmaster, Mr Jim Dyer, investigated the affair, the full scale of the scandal did not emerge until years later after the father of one victim, allegedly raped, demanded action.
Mr Dyer, who is now dead, kept confidential notes of his inquiries into the abuse over a six-month period 12 years ago but never alerted police or the social services, the report prepared for the North's Department of Education found.
It followed a huge investigation that involved former pupils who were among 50 witnesses who made statements.
The shocking report into the school's handling of the affair claimed the board of governors at Campbell College said the action taken by Mr Dyer fell short of good professional practice and the school's management arrangements did not provide adequate child protection.
Mr Dyer informed a doctor and school matron only after the prefect, then aged 13, confessed his actions to him under pressure from pupils older than most of the victims.
The prefect was later cautioned by police and placed on the sex offenders register.
It was six years later that the horrific level of abuse emerged after the boy who suffered worst underwent psychiatric treatment at a specialist adolescents unit, aged 17.
By that stage Mr Dyer, who left Cabin Hill in 1996, had died.
PA