Child Molesters, Child Abuse Effects: Bulimia, Eating Disorders, Addictions

The abuse took place in 1992 and 1993 and was carried out by one pupil at Cabin Hill preparatory boarding school.

The report said a lack of action may have harmed both the boys abused and the young abuser.

The fee-paying preparatory school on the Newtownards Road in east Belfast closed its boarding department in October 2004.

Education Minister Barry Gardiner said: "The report does not make comfortable reading and provides all who have a duty to safeguard and promote children's welfare with much to reflect on."

The inquiry team, appointed by the Department of Education last September, found there were multiple instances of serious sexual abuse affecting at least six boys.

It found that one boy, who was acting as a dormitory prefect, carried out indecent assaults on fellow pupils until he was forced by other boys to confess to the headmaster at the time.

The boy said to have carried out the abuse was formally cautioned by the police in 2002.

However, it was the school's handling of the matter which has been criticised by the report's authors.

Response 'inadequate'

Only a very few people were told about it, in what the report team called an inadequate response.

It said that not only should the assaulted boys have been given help, but also the perpetrator, who left the school soon after the discovery of his actions.

The incidents were not made public until May 1999.

The board of governors of Campbell College, which runs the Cabin Hill preparatory school, has acknowledged the criticism of its handling of the incidents of sexual abuse.

It said it regretted the distress of pupils which had come to light as a result of this inquiry.

However, the report said that even as late as last year, a board of governors' response to press enquiries was said to be erroneous and misleading.

The three-strong team appointed last September to examine the allegations were the former Senior Chief Inspector of Education in Scotland, Douglas Osler, the former director of the NSPCC in Northern Ireland, Lynne Peyton, and the former principal of Dalriada School, Ballymena, William Calvert.

The team looked at what child protection measures were in place at the time and the extent of the abuse.

The inquiry was held in private.