Kesgrave Hall School: Suffolk police to review case files

Police are reviewing a two-decades-old inquiry into abuse claims at a school.

Suffolk police first investigated allegations of abuse at the former Kesgrave Hall School, near Ipswich, in the 1990s.

No charges in connection with alleged abuse were ever brought. Police have since been asked to reopen the investigation by Dan Poulter, MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich.

The force has located the original files and is reviewing them.

Kesgrave Hall, which closed in 1993 and is now a hotel and restaurant, was a privately-owned school for pupils with behavioural problems.

Children were placed there by local education authorities.

Conservative MP Dr Poulter said last month he was "extremely concerned to hear about the allegations of widespread child abuse" at the school in the 1980s and 1990s.

A police spokesman said: "Suffolk Police has retrieved papers from our storage facility in relation to an investigation carried out in 1992 in relation to complaints of abuse at Kesgrave Hall boarding school and we are at an early stage of reviewing the information.

"We encourage anyone who has been a victim of abuse to contact police and would like to reassure them that their complaints will be taken very seriously and investigated thoroughly."