The unnamed child suffered the horrific ordeal as she was sexually and physically abused and every day she cried out for help and nobody ever came

The unnamed child suffered the horrific ordeal at the hands of pupils the same age as her at her primary school in Wales for months.

Her mother has spoken of her shock and horror when her daughter confided in her.

She said: "She was telling me things that I think every mother dreads to hear from their daughter. It was horrendous what she'd gone through.

"Every day she was being stripped. Every day she was being sexually and physically abused and every day she cried out for help and nobody ever came."

She added: "I think that you cannot excuse that. How can you possibly say that that is okay and nobody is answerable for that?"

The bottom line is the family will never know what happened to their child.

Keith Towler, children's commissioner for Wales

The child has since been moved to a new school but her mother told the BBC she will be scarred for life by the abuse she suffered.

An official inquiry into the abuse accepted sexually harmful behaviour did take place - but it concluded no action could be taken against those responsible because they were too young.

The ages of the pupils made it near-impossible to gather proof of what had happened and all were under the age of criminality.

Keith Towler, children's commissioner for Wales, called the review "a shocking failure", adding: "The bottom line is the family will never know what happened to their child."

He also acknowledged the serious case review system was "failing some of the most vulnerable children".

The review was only launched by the unnamed local authority when the victim's mother took legal action.

The conclusions of the review have been published two years after the allegations were first made and a review of that inquiry process itself is now under way.

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