There are more than 160 claims by former residents of St William's Community Home that they were subject to sexual abuse spanning a 30-year period.

But solicitor David Greenwood from Wakefield-based firm, Jordans, who has been dealing with the case since 2004, says the Catholic organisations which ran the correctional facility have so far refused to accept liability and offered nothing but insincere apologies.

Mr Greenwood, a child abuse specialist solicitor, says he has had to obtain a court order to force the organisations to hand over documentation.

He said: "Over the years I've heard a lot of pronouncements from the Catholic Church expressing sorrow but they are really empty words in this case.

"They are doing nothing constructive to help these individuals. I'm confident we will have a high degree of success for these claimants.

"But the sad thing is the defendants are trying to find ways of getting out of compensating them, so it's going to prolong the agony until probably next year, although I'm doing everything I can to bring that date forward."

A spokesman for the diocese, which covers North and East Yorkshire, rejected the solicitor's claims and said the Catholic Church is doing everything it could to help the legal process.

Father Derek Turnham said: "The diocese has co-operated fully with the process and we have taken the view the correct way of proceeding is through the court so that everybody is treated in the most fair way possible."

The case, which could see more than £4 million being awarded in compensation, is the largest abuse case from a single location ever in
Britain.

It was designed as a correctional school for troubled boys on the edge of Market Weighton, where Linden House secure hospital now stands.

It was run by the Diocese of Middlesbrough and De La Selle Brothers, a Catholic order of lay teachers from the early 1960s up until its closure in 1992.

A spokesman for the De La Salle Brothers said: "The Brothers have yet to receive all the documentation connected with the case. They will consider the claims and make a response in accordance with the legal process.

"We have cooperated with the police and the statutory authorities since the investigation into St Williams started. Now that the claims are before the court, the matter is sub judice so it would be inappropriate to make any further comment to the Press."

The home, which received emotionally and behaviourally-disturbed boys referred from local authorities, was closed when the scale of the abuse first became apparent. About 2,000 children and 500 staff had been through its doors.