Boy, 12, who raped pupil, 9, wasn't prosecuted due to botched school investigation

A 12-year-old boy who raped a neglected nine-year-old wasn’t prosecuted due to a botched investigation by his school, a report has found.

The unnamed boys were both students at Appletree School in Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria, a special school for children who have been abused or neglected.

The victim said the alleged incident took place after he had absconded with two older unnamed children, aged 12 and 11, in November 2006.

During a later police interview, the nine-year-old described how the older boy had ‘pulled his pants down’ and sexually abused him, a report published by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse said.

The boy had told his attacker to “stop and get off”, but he did not until he was left hurt and then managed to “run away”, the report said.

The abuse came to light a few weeks later after a member of staff overheard friends of the nine-year-old making accusations towards his alleged attacker about his behaviour.

The alleged victim was later interviewed by Cumbria Constabulary, but no action was taken due to factors including the boys’ conflicting accounts and their “damaged backgrounds”, the report said.

In 2007, the alleged victim told his foster parent he had been repeatedly sexually abused, “maybe a 100 times”, by the 12-year-old and other pupils while he had been at the school.

But he said he didn't feel he could tell school teachers about his ordeal because “all the staff knew each other”, and he didn’t think he would be taken seriously.

In evidence, the principal at Appletree apologised for what happened.

Despite receiving admissions from the 12-year-old boy, the report said the Crown Prosecution service had decided to take “no further action”.

This was because there were “discrepancies in the accounts” and due to “the young ages and damaged backgrounds of the children involved”.

But also the report said it was because of school staff "interviewing the children and contaminating the evidence.”

The Crown Prosecution Service stated that because of the way the school had conducted its investigation, a court would have “thrown it out anyway, if it had gone that far”.

After the 12-year-old boy was interviewed under caution later in November 2006, he never returned to Appletree School.

The report into abuse at residential schools is the 19th produced by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.

Appletree School told Yahoo News UK they are 'considering their response' to the report.