Concerned parents and teachers at Daramalan College complained about paedophile Paul Lyons's inappropriate relationship with boys as early as 1988, but the school failed to act for more than a decade, new civil claims allege.

Five fresh compensation claims against the school have been lodged in the ACT Supreme Court in the past week on behalf of former students whom Lyons sexually abused in the late 1980s and 1990s.

One former student said Lyons molested him several times in 1988 Lyons's first year at Daramalan in the school science lab, the gymnasium, and at Lyons's Queanbeyan flat.

Another ex-student said Lyons twice invited him and two other boys back to his flat and gave them cannabis and alcohol before molesting him. A third assault occurred in 1990 during a wake at Lyons's flat for a student who had committed suicide. Again Lyons gave him and other boys cannabis and alcohol, before sodomising him.

Lyons, who also molested boys during his 12 years at Marist College in Pearce in the 1970s and 1980s, committed suicide in 2000 after he was charged with molesting a 15-year-old student in 1989, and admitted his guilt to police in a recorded interview.

Three other civil claims lodged were lodged last year, and two were settled out of court in 2005 for undisclosed pay-outs.

In the latest claims, it is alleged several parents complained to the school as early as 1988 about his inappropriate conduct, including taking students to his Queanbeyan flat on weekends for sleepovers.

The school is named as first defendant, while Father Denis Uhr, who was headmaster at the school between 1989 and and 1997, is second defendant.

Because it is an independent school, the Dickson secondary school does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Education Office, but its order, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, which is third defendant. Father Uhr is head of education for the order.

It is alleged that within weeks of Lyons's arrival at the school fellow teachers learned that he was ''over-familiar'' with boys, giving them money to buy food and bus fares, and taking them to his flat with the pretext of tutoring them.

Parents contacted Lyons's supervising teacher to complain Lyons had taken their sons to his flat without the school notifying them.

The supervising teacher confronted Lyons with the concerns, but Lyons became aggressive and said he would continue his conduct.

The headmaster, Father Uhr, was then informed.

In 1993 a science lab technician saw Lyons in the science prep room kissing a student's stomach, and the next day massaging another student's naked bottom.

She reported the incidents to Lyons's supervising teacher, Dale Seaman, who told Father Uhr. Nothing was done. Between 1988 and 2000, several other complaints about Lyons were made to Father Uhr and his successor, former priest Frank Fulton, but Lyons remained at the school until his suicide in November 2000.

Three claims were lodged last week and two more yesterday. Daramalan College is yet to file a defence.