A public inquiry should be held into child abuse at a Maidenhead children’s home in the 1960s, a councillor has said.

The late Don Prescott is alleged to have run a paedophile ring from Green Field House where he abused and rented out boys between 1964 and 1970.

Now, councillor Neil Knowles wants the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to call for a public inquiry into how the abuse was allowed ‘to continue for so long without action’.

Green Field House was run by the now-defunct Berkshire County Council as a boarding home for children referred to at the time as ‘maladjusted’ boys with problems at school or home.

Its manager Mr Prescott – who died around 1987 – is alleged to have abused the boys and rented them out to other paedophiles as far afield as Leicester, London, Cambridge, and Reading. He and his wife left the home abruptly in 1970 and were never charged.

The home closed before Berkshire County Council dissolved in 1998. The abuse only came to light in 2000 when one of the survivors – then in his 40s – went to Thames Valley Police after suffering a nervous breakdown.

Although the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead never ran the home itself, responsibility passed to it after Berkshire County Council dissolved. The Royal Borough agreed an out-of-court settlement to nine of the survivors totalling more than £300,000 in 2006 - despite no criminal convictions over the case.

Alan Collins, their solicitor, described Mr Prescott as a violent man whose abuse ranged from humiliating the boys when they wet the bed to “the worst type of sexual abuse”.

Mr Collins said: “Unfortunately for the boys staying at Green Field House, it was the centre of a paedophile ring numbering so many men some of the boys lost count of those who abused them.

“They suffered the most horrendous abuse - it was the worst type of sexual abuse. They were filmed, photographed and had to take part in the abuse. What was surprising was that it went on for six years.”

Mr Collins said that although police had been suspicious of what was going on at the home, no charges were brought against Mr Prescott or others at the time.

One man, who has not been named, was charged with sex abuse after a survivor came forward in 2000. But the case was dropped before trial due to a lack of evidence as only two men had come forward at that time.

Councillor Knowles wants other councillors to vote to call for a public inquiry at a meeting on Wednesday, September 25.