A woman says she has been vindicated after a report confirmed that teenage girls were drugged and abused emotionally, physically and sexually at a “frightening, violent and unpredictable” home for girls.

The review, which found cruelty was sometimes “normalised” at the Church of England-run Kendall House between the 1960s and 1980s, was carried out after years of campaigning from Ongar mother-of-three Teresa Cooper, who was sent to the home aged 14.

Ms Cooper has suffered lasting health problems ever since but had no existing conditions or illnesses when she was placed in the home.

Dr Sue Proctor, who investigated abuse by Jimmy Savile at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, led the investigation and said that the truth would not have been revealed without Ms Cooper’s efforts.

At the home in Gravesend, Kent, open between 1947 and 1986, vulnerable girls as young as 11 were routinely drugged with antidepressants, sedatives and anti-psychotic medication at dosages exceeding usual amounts for adults to “place them in a constant stupor”.

During the 32 months Ms Cooper was there, records show she was forcibly given drugs such as Valium and other tranquilisers more than 1,200 times.

She was abused while under the effect of the drugs and she believes the chemicals are responsible for health problems suffered by her and her children.

Ms Cooper suffers from severe joint and muscular pain and other health issues, while her daughter was born with a cleft palate, her eldest son with respiratory problems and her youngest son was blind until he was two.

A number of other ex-residents of the Rochester and Canterbury dioceses home had children with birth defects, something which Ms Cooper says the church needs to take full responsibility for.

Girls who resisted drugging at the home were punished.

The teenagers were often locked in isolation for “days on end”, forced into straitjackets or traumatised by unnecessary transfers to an adult mental hospital.

The review, commissioned by Bishop of Rochester James Langstaff, found that all former residents who spoke to investigators and all the residents whose file was read were emotionally, physically or sexually abused by staff.

At least two rapes are believed to have happened at the home, which was run by superintendent Doris Law and psychiatrist Dr Mahenthiran Perinpanayagam.

The abuse caused “immeasurable hurt, pain, anguish, anger, mistrust” and self-doubt, the report says.

Ms Cooper, now 49, says it was her “worst nightmare”.

“The church need to apologise to me.

“30 years I have been fighting them, 30 years they have been lying to me.

“It does have a knock-on effect on my life and I feel I need some kind of apology.

“I have been vindicated and I was right all along but now I have to keep on going on the emotional rollercoaster.”

Although Ms Cooper did not take part in the review due to a disagreement on its terms of reference, she led the call for justice for many years.

“I am too old now, I can’t go back and start again and have an adult life that is not about Kendall House,” she said.

Ms Cooper says she first reported abuse against her to Kent Police when it happened, 30 years ago.

She says her allegations of rape were not taken seriously, and says the police’s response to claims of assault should be reviewed following the report’s publication.

“Kent Police, had they listened to me, they could have done something… they had many opportunities to do something.

“I do feel now the IPCC should investigate.”

However, Kent Police said the Crown Prosecution Service determined there was “insufficient grounds to proceed with a prosecution” after the force carried out a “full and detailed criminal investigation” into allegations from three women in 2007.

The investigation was reviewed again in 2009, and a spokesman said the service would consider investigating any new evidence.

He added: “At the end of the review in 2009 there was no suggestion of any police officer wrongdoing in respect of this case.”

Following the report publication on July 13, Bishop Paul Butler, the church’s safeguarding leader, said: “The findings of the independent review into Kendall House describe the harrowing regime experienced by numerous girls and young teenagers who were placed into the care of this Church of England home.

“The appalling standards of care and treatment should never have been allowed and on behalf of the national church I apologise unreservedly to all the former residents whose lives were and continue to be affected by their damaging experiences at Kendall House.”