Aristocrat Robert Montagu (pictured) has told how he once stopped a boy from killing himself after the Eton pupil was raped by two prefects

The son of the 10th Earl of Sandwich has told how he once stopped a boy from hurling himself out of a window to his death after the Eton pupil was raped by two prefects.

Aristocrat Robert Montagu said the incident was part of a culture of 'fagging' at the elite school during the 1960s, requiring younger pupils to act as servants to senior boys.

The 65-year-old claimed that 'a predatory gang of bullies' were responsible for a series of attacks and that housemasters turned a blind eye for years.

Mr Montagu, now a psychotherapist, told James Fielding at the Sunday Express that he was so worried about the boy who tried to throw himself out of the window that for a week he kept in contact with him at night via a walkie-talkie.

He said: 'There were a few of us who banded together to protect younger boys from a predatory gang of bullies.

'I was at Eton between 1962 and 1966 at a time when the fagging culture was rife and the culture of prefects of 17 or 18 abusing boys aged 13 and 14 was endemic. It was a problem at many public schools.'

Speaking from his family home near Dorchester, Dorset, Mr Montagu said smaller pupils suffered appalling and degrading sexual abuse after being accused of being 'girly'.

Mr Montagu has previously spoken about how he was abused by his own father as a boy.

At the Oxford Literary Festival earlier this year he discussed his book, A Humour Of Love, in which he reveals years of abuse, including a single rape, carried out by father Victor.

Mr Montagu said that, during his years at Eton, rape was common, adding that people with 'entitled backgrounds' were given 'more opportunities' to be abusive towards children.

The aristocrat has talked in the past about how a loving relationship with his father turned to abuse when he was aged seven.

'Ignored': The 65-year-old claimed that 'a predatory gang of bullies' were responsible for a series of attacks and that housemasters at Eton College (pictured) turned a blind eye for years

It began after his mother, Rosemary Peto, goddaughter of Queen Maud of Norway, left the family home, and he believes his father used it as a way to cope with the loss.

He wrote about being groomed by his father, as hugs and tickles gave way to kisses, which in turn gave way to serial and serious abuse.