Image from the 1996 film Sleepers, with its four main stars: Brad Pitt, Jason Patric, Billy Crudup and Ron Eldard playing the roles of four adults who were subjected to abuse whilst being at the same boarding school. The film has similarities to the events at the Odenwaldschule in Hesse. (Photo attributed to www.movieweb.com.)

Over the weekend, it was announced in the Frankfurt daily newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau that an elite school in Hesse is at the centre of a long-standing scandal, which may have seen up to 100 pupils (past and present) subjected to abuse from teachers and other pupils.

The school in question is an elite boarding school, which houses up to 225 pupils - who live in a dormitory with a teacher as a sort-of "father figure."