A prestigious music college failed to properly investigate allegations of sexual assault made against one of its students, leaving him free to attack another person, it has been alleged. Two women, named only as “A” and “S”, have said they are among more than a dozen others at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama to have made complaints of sexual misconduct against the unnamed male student. “A” has said she reported four alleged sexual assaults against her by the male student within her first two weeks at the college in Cardiff. According to her lawyer, she was asked to repeat the allegations to a panel of lecturers days later and considered the matter to be in hand. Her lawyer said she only found out later that the college had not yet considered the allegations to have been officially made because they were not in writing. “S” alleges that in the intervening period the same male perpetrated a “violent and sexual assault” against her. The women’s lawyer, John Watkins, of Bater Law, told the Guardian he believed at least 16 women had made similar allegations against the same person, including his two clients, though not all of them were willing to go on the record. “A” and “S” have threatened the college with legal action, claiming it failed in its duty to them. Watkins said on Thursday he believed the college’s investigating officer had incorrectly downgraded many of the allegations made by other women, including those of “S”. He said the investigator did not consider all of the allegations as being corroborative of those made by “A”, which were taken alone. As a result, her complaints were “found to be not proved because [the investigator] said that it was one word against another and ‘I can’t come down on either side as to who’s telling me the truth’”. He claimed the investigator would have come to a different conclusion had he not misdefined the secondary allegations and had he considered them all together as sketching out a pattern of behaviour. In a legal letter to the college, he quoted the investigator as having said: “If there were any other allegations of sexual harassment against [the alleged perpetrator] … that would have been a different case. There weren’t. There was one allegation against him on a sexual assault. There were numerous allegations of inappropriate touching.” A college spokesperson said it would be inappropriate to comment on the specific allegations because of the legal process, but that every report of inappropriate behaviour was treated with the “utmost seriousness”. “The safety and wellbeing of our students and staff is of the highest importance and we have formal mechanisms in place to both safeguard and support members of the college community who wish to report incidents.” They said the college’s policies and procedures were kept under constant review. “We remain committed to listening openly to any member of our community, current or previous, who wish to report an incident through our formal processes – whether recent or historic. We would encourage any complainants who have not reported their concerns to us, to do so.