One of Northern Ireland’s leading grammar schools has agreed to pay out more than £50,000 to a former schoolboy rugby player after he was allegedly coerced into stripping naked and having his head shaved as part of a ‘hazing’ initiation.

The High Court in Belfast on Wednesday heard how Gabriel McConkey, who was 17 at the time of the incident in December 2022, is to be paid £52,760 plus legal costs as part of the settlement with Methodist College.

The 19-year-old also claimed to have witnessed other boys perform acts on a sex toy while in the Algarve for warm-weather training and sued the school’s board of governors for alleged negligence and failure to properly supervise the senior rugby squad on the trip.

McConkey’s mother, Sian Mawhinney, stated that her son had been left “in a state of trauma” after the trip.

“The child that we sent on a school trip is not the child that returned home to us, either physically or mentally,” she said.

“He looked absolutely broken by what happened and what he witnessed. As a result of all this Gabriel left school rugby because of the environment.”

McConkey, who now studies sport coaching at university and attended court with his family, alleged that older pupils subjected him and some of the other younger members of the squad to a series of so-called “hazing” incidents which included shaving his head, forcing him to strip off and run a “naked mile” into a swimming pool, and forcing him to watch other pupils perform acts on a sex toy while wearing women’s underwear.

Despite the action being listed for a three-day trial, Mr Justice Fowler was informed that a settlement had been reached. According to RTE, no admission of liability was made by Methodist College as part of the resolution.

Victoria Haddock, of Phoenix Law, representing McConkey, said: “Our client suffered distressing personal injury arising out of degrading, abusive incidents perpetrated on him during a Methodist College school trip.

“This occurred at a critical stage of his formative life, in the middle of his gateway exams.

“He is content that the matter is resolved today, and has been vindicated with settlement in his favour of £52,760.”