An investigation into a sexual abuse scandal at an elite New England boarding school found that at least 61 former students were assaulted over a period of many years.

An independent inquiry was launched following reports of abuse at Rhode Island’s St George’s boarding school. On Thursday, the findings of the report were made public, revealing that 10 school employees sexually abused at least 51 students in the 1970s and 1980s, and at least 10 were abused by fellow students.

“In the 1970s and 1980s, St George’s School betrayed the trust of the many St Georges students who became the targets of sexual abuse when they came to the school,” said the report by Boston lawyer Martin Murphy.

Katie Wales was among those former pupils who spoke about the abuse they suffered (AP)

“Likewise [it] betrayed the trust of parents who sent those students to St George’s with the expectation that it would be a safe place for them to live and learn.”

The Associated Press said that among the findings was that at least one in five girls who attended the school in the 1970s, was abused by athletic trainer Al Gibbs.

Gibbs was fired in 1980 after being caught taking photographs of a naked girl in his office, but the report found that he was paid a $1,200 annual grant for “distinguished service” that continued until he died in 1996. The school acknowledged last December that he abused 17 students, but the report said that number was at least 31.

Among those he abused was Katie Wales. Earlier this year, she was among former pupils who spoke of the abuse she suffered at his hands.

“And there was the, 'Oh, I have to work on your back but you can't have your T-shirt or your bra on, because I can't work on your muscles that way,' ” she told reporters. “And then that turned around into, 'Well, I have to work the front muscles also.' And then, 'Oh, let me show you how to dry yourself on your private areas.' ”

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Another teacher received a recommendation from the dean of the faculty despite his firing in 1988 for inappropriate sexual contact with a student, the report said.

The report also suggested that the school’s current headmaster did not appropriately handle reports of sexual misconduct by a teacher in 2004 and should have fired him rather than put him on leave.

It also criticised the current board of trustees for “victim shaming” by issuing a statement earlier this year that cast doubt on the credibility of a student who accused the teacher of molestation.

Lawyer Eric MacLeish, an alumni of St George’s who represented dozens of victims at the school, called the report the most comprehensive recounting to date of sexual abuse at an American boarding school.