Two men who were sexually abused at a Wandsworth school will be paid £100,000 in damages by Wandsworth Council after a landmark ruling at the House of Lords this week.

They were abused by teacher Derek Harding as young teenagers during the 1980s but did not tell their families or the police about it until 1999.

Mr Harding was convicted of indecent assault in 2001, but the victims were told they could not claim compensation from the council because of a long-standing legal loophole which says claims of deliberate assaults must be made within six years of occurence.

The men, known only as Client X and Client Y, were severely traumatised by their experiences, unable to work and suffered depression and nervous breakdowns. One spent over a year in a psychiatric unit.

The abuse took place when schools in the borough were under the control of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). But Wandsworth Council agreed to pay damages - subject to the condition that the victims' legal team managed to get the six-year rule changed.

After being turned down at a county court and the Court of Appeal, X and Y took their case to the House of Lords which ruled in their favour on Wednesday.

The council have 14 days to pay £57,500 to X and £70,000 to Y.

Jonathan Wheeler of Bolt Burdon Kemp, who represented the victims, said: "This decision is a courageous one, but inevitably the right one, and will secure justice for thousands of people in a similar position to my clients.

"Paedophiles abuse in secret, and often threaten their victims not to tell. This combines with feelings of guilt and shame in the children who have been abused, which is why many repress their experiences.

"No longer will abusers be able to profit from the very act of abuse itself."

A spokesman for the council said this week: "This was a case involving allegations from the mid-1980s when schools in Wandsworth were under the control of the now defunct ILEA. When that organisation was abolished in 1990, responsibility for all aspects involving local schools passed to the council, hence our involvement in this case.

"We agreed to pay damages to these two people, as we fully recognised that they should receive compensation for what had happened to them."