Arrests in secret boarding school inquiry

A FORMER residential school for troubled boys and girls is at the centre of a major child abuse investigation, spanning three decades and involving dozens of potential victims.

The large-scale police operation, which has been running in secret for four-and-a-half years, has conducted more than 1,500 inquiries relating to allegations of sexual, physical and mental abuse.

To date, 17 people have either been arrested or interviewed under caution, and detectives ‘believe there are a number of others who may have committed criminal offences’.

A former pupil of the Kinton School in Woking, Surrey, has given The Mail on Sunday a harrowing account of the abuse that is alleged to have taken place there from the early 1970s up until its closure in 2000.

He claimed a girl told him she was raped, staff used brutal restraining techniques and youngsters were taunted that ‘their parents didn’t love them’. Surrey police have asked that anyone with information should call 101 and ask for the Complex Abuse Unit or, if uncomfortable with speaking directly to police, call the National Association for People Abused in Childhood on 0808 8010331 or the RASASC (Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre) on 01483 546400.