Although findings have been published almost 20 years after being suppressed, many passages have been redacted

A decision to continue to withhold crucial details from a damning report on widespread abuse in children's homes has been strongly criticised by victims, lawyers and child protection experts.

The Jillings report into physical and sexual abuse of boys and girls in north Wales in the 1970s and 80s was finally published on Monday almost 20 years after it was suppressed on advice from lawyers.

But many passages in the 300-page document have been redacted, leading to suspicions that some of those involved in abuse or the flawed investigations into it are still being afforded protection they should not have.

One former victim said it was a scandal that so much of the document was still being censored. "This report was all about getting to the truth, hearing the voices of those who were abused," he said. "And still we're not allowed to hear the whole truth all these years later."

A legal expert in abuse in residential care, Alison Millar from the law firm Leigh Day, said: "We are in an Alice in Wonderland situation. The report is effectively gutted so that important sections dealing with the very issue of what the panel found did go wrong are excluded."

There was also criticism of the decision to pulp the report in 1996 after council lawyers and insurers warned that publishing it could lead to a stream of compensation claims. Ray Jones, professor of social work at Kingston University, said: "It seems clear that commercial interest trumped the interest in care of children."

Former social services chief John Jillings and his panel spent two years investigating abuse at homes including the notorious Bryn Estyn centre in Wrexham, which was described by one boy as "the Colditz of residential care".

The panel heard details of how boys were sexually abused by staff and forced to perform sex acts on each other in exchange for cigarettes, money and privileges. Panel members also heard how staff members brutalised boys physically, even ordering older residents to "discipline" younger ones by urinating or defecating on them.

In his report Jillings was critical of the response of police and social services to allegations of abuse. The report claimed: "Time and time again the responses to indications that children may have been abused has been too little and too late."

The panel attacked north Wales police and social services at the now disbanded Clwyd county council for allegedly making it difficult for it to obtain documents it felt it needed.

Panel members expressed concern that there was no independent police mechanism to investigate serving or former officers implicated in abuse.

There was also a long section in the report about insurers Zurich Municipal which, it was claimed, warned of a "bandwagon of claims" if the panel placed adverts looking for people who might have information about abuse.

The report claimed the interests of the county council's insurers, Zurich Municipal, "played an important part in the events surrounding the investigation of child abuse".

The panel conceded in the report they could not investigate the rumours that famous people visited the homes to abuse children, nor that paedophile rings were operating.

To the anger of Jillings and many victims the report was suppressed and only published in the wake of the outcry that followed a Newsnight programme last year that led to Lord McAlpine being wrongly identified as involved in abuse.

North Wales police declined to comment. Zurich said "serious concerns" were raised by the council, the police and others about the potential to identify victims and the "level of unsupported allegations".

The six councils that replaced Clwyd claimed "significant new statutory legislation and guidance has been implemented" since Jillings.

They added: "The report can not be published in its entirety because it contains personal data and material that is considered defamatory."