ONE of Britain’s top independent schools is under police investigation over allegations of pupil bullying involving the use of internet images of torture, murder and child pornography.

Officers are examining computers taken from the school, in southeast England, for any evidence of such extreme websites being viewed.

They launched the investigation after being told that the bullying involved forcible restraint in front of computers while horrific images were brought up on screen by the perpetrators. The “cyber-bullying” is alleged to have happened on numerous occasions over a period of about a year.

Council social services and police officers specialising in child protection launched their inquiry last month.

Parents are also understood to have been concerned by what they claim was the school’s failure to respond adequately and have complained formally to the governors. The Sunday Times is not publishing the name of the school at the request of one of the parents who is aware of the allegations.

The head teacher said this weekend that the school was taking the allegations “extremely seriously” and that it had “very high standards of pastoral care and child protection”.

The abuses alleged to have occurred linked physical and cyber-bullying. They are said to have taken place in pupils’ common rooms. The bullies, not using their own user names on the computers, would then log on to websites featuring material such as sexual abuse of children, sexual torture of adults and explicit scenes of bestiality.

Any intended victim, according to the allegations, would be restrained in a chair and forced to watch. It has been claimed that the school failed to supervise pupils’ computer use adequately and did not act quickly enough when the abuse was brought to the attention of staff.

One parent said: “The school launched their own investigation but this failed to curb the abuse.”

Cyber-bullying is becoming an increasing concern in schools as the boom in communications technology has made pupils vulnerable to humiliation and intimidation by other children using mobile phones, e-mails, messaging software and social networking websites such as Bebo.

The head teacher denied that the school had failed in its responsibilities. “We are always vigilant and thorough in any matter linked to child protection, to the welfare and safety of pupils and to their pastoral care,” the head teacher said. “Bullying of any kind is not tolerated and we would always investigate any inappropriate behaviour.

“Although it would not be right to discuss the detail of the allegations at this stage because, at our request and with our full involvement and cooperation, they are being investigated by police and social services, we can say that when similar allegations arose last year they were thoroughly examined in cooperation with social services who did not find a case to answer.

“If there is any substance to these new allegations, then in cooperation with the police and social services we shall ensure they are investigated and dealt with.

Social services said: “As a general rule, if an allegation of this kind surfaces in any school in our area, private or state, then we liaise with the police but we would not be in a position to comment on any investigation.”

A police spokeswoman said that “inquiries are ongoing, there have been no arrests” at the school. She added: “Computer equipment has been removed from the school for analysis.”

The allegations come amid growing public concern about online abuse. New measures being introduced by the government include a statutory power for teachers to confiscate mobile phones if they suspect that they are being used for bullying. This power comes into force today.

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has also commissioned an agency to design material to be sent to children via text message and posted on websites warning of the dangers of bullying and giving tips on how to avoid online abuse.

The campaign follows research by Goldsmiths College, London University, and the MSN text messaging service which showed between one in 10 and a quarter of children had experienced some form of cyber-bullying. The MSN study found that almost half of parents are not aware of the phenomenon.

A DfES spokesman said cyber-bullying was “really insidious because it extends beyond the school gates and into the home. It means that there is no haven for those being bullied”.

He added: “Text messages in particular can be used as an especially nasty way for bullies to tease, harass or threaten people. The campaign will also address teenagers’ complacency and complicity, for example in forwarding malicious e-mails or giving out and passing on people’s details.

“Teenagers need to know how to protect themselves from the risk of cyber-bullying and what they should do if they are a victim of it. But they should also be aware of the ways they can passively perpetuate it – by forwarding offensive e-mails or contributing to a malicious threat on a noticeboard.”

For children’s charities and schools, online bullying has become an area of increasing concern. Norfolk county council, for example, has banned access to Bebo in every one of its schools, while in other areas the head teachers have spent thousands of pounds on monitoring systems.

Teachers have reported that cyber-bullying is also prevalent among primary schoolchildren as young as nine.

- Cheshire police sent two officers to question a 10-year-old boy after a parent complained he had called her son a "gay boy" in an e-mail. The boy's father said his son had been terrified and asked if he would be arrested. Inspector Nick Bailey said police took a proper view and considered the house visit reasonable.

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