A GIRL aged six was physically and sexually abused by 23 of her classmates at a British elementary school.

The victim was regularly assaulted by the group of children her own age, within the grounds of the school in Wales, The Sun reported.

The school and the local education authority - both of which cannot be named - said no action could be taken on the abuse because the children involved were below the age of criminal responsibility.

The girl's mother recalled the terror on her daughter's face as she revealed what was happening to her.

"She was telling me things that I think every mother dreads to hear from their daughter," she said.

"It was horrendous what she'd gone through. Every day she was being stripped. She was being physically and sexually abused every day. And every day she cried out for help and nobody ever came."

An investigation was launched in a bid to find out why the children allegedly involved in the abuse were free to remain at the school, despite the publication of a serious case review into the allegations.

The review, which began only after the girl moved school, was published a full two years after the allegations first emerged. It confirmed the assaults took place.

"This is a shocking failure and the bottom line is the family will never know what happened to their child," said Keith Towler, Children's Commissioner for Wales.

"We are going to review the serious case review process in Wales to make sure they are much more timely published, within a year of incidents happening, so that we get really clear for everybody involved, what happened, why it happened and what we need to do to put things right."



Read more about this case at The Sun.