Police set to make three arrests over Jersey children's home horror

Last updated at 21:21pm on 8th March 2008

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=528758&in_page_id=1770

Detectives investigating child abuse allegations at a Jersey children's home are poised to arrest three prime suspects after bones were found in a nearby field.

Police chief Lenny Harper said swoops will take place in Jersey and on the UK mainland.

He added: "I cannot say if the bones we have found are human yet but we will have the results on Monday."

Mr Harper said interviews with 160 alleged victims from the Haut de la Garenne care home had revealed one graphic incident from the Seventies "that has caused us particular concern. There is a strong possibility that someone died as a result".

He said they had been told of serious sex abuse taking place on day trips organised by staff and there was evidence of children being forced to watch other residents being sexually abused.

Mr Harper spoke as more than 300 people joined a rally to remember the victims in Jersey's capital St Helier.

Demonstrators called for the overthrow of the island's government amid accusations a cover-up for five decades.

Giffard Aubin, 73, said he was sent to the home as a seven year old and had darts thrown at him and wire scraped across his legs. He said: "I suffered there for nine years of my childhood. Our politicians never wanted to take any notice of us at all."

A child's skull was discovered at the home two weeks ago near to a series of hidden underground cellars. Police are about to break into a second cellar with two further underground rooms still to search amid fears they were used as torture chambers.

New finds in Jersey care home probe

Friday, March 14, 2008

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=118280&in_page_id=34&in_a_source=

Police investigating allegations of abuse at a former children's home in Jersey have made finds in a second cellar room.

Deputy police chief Lenny Harper confirmed that "items" had been discovered, but said it was too early to say whether they had any sinister import.

Forensic examination of the second of four cellar rooms at Haut de la Garenne are continuing, and officers have now removed floorboards and joists from the room above to make access easier.

Jersey Police said they would not elaborate on what the new discoveries were.

Mr Harper is currently in London for two days of meetings with Scotland Yard detectives with experience of similar inquiries for advice on the investigation.

Earlier this week a sniffer dog trained to search for blood and human remains gave a positive "indication" in the second room.

The second room is three times the size of the first, where police found blood specks in a shallow concrete bath last week.

The first room also housed an item, believed to be shackles, and a secret trapdoor entrance.

Adults who lived in the home as children during the 1960s, 70s and 80s have claimed they were chained up, physically abused and raped in cellars.

Some 25 people are suspected of sex crimes and physical assaults, including senior members of staff and a former politician. Detectives have said they expect to make at least two arrests linked to the investigation in the coming weeks.

Two further 'punishment rooms' found at former Jersey children's home

Last updated at 16:47pm on 25th March 2008

Two more torture chambers have been discovered at the 'Colditz' care home where human remains were found.

It brings the total number of secret dungeons found underneath the former care home in Jersey to four.

Search teams have already excavated two underground chambers at Haut de la Garenne where shackles and a blood-spattered concrete bath were found beside a wooden beam bearing the haunting message: 'I've been bad 4 years and years.'

Now officers have identified a further two rooms with a similar layout hidden under the Victorian building......

Article here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=544731&in_page_id=1770

Milk teeth found in Jersey care home cellar

By Caroline Gammell and Aislinn Simpson

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/23/njersey123.xml

Last Updated: 1:53am BST 23/04/2008

Two milk teeth and bone fragments, believed to have come from a child's skull, have been found in cellars beneath the Jersey care home at the centre of a major abuse inquiry, police said yesterday.

The latest discoveries were close to blood-stained items unearthed in the last pair of four bricked-up cellars under Haut de la Garenne.

Detectives overseeing a search of the house amid allegations of child disappearances, rape and torture believe the finds could be "hugely significant" in their homicide investigation.

Since February, forensic archeologists guided by sniffer dogs have found another fragment of a child's skull as well the blood stained items, a pair of shackles and a communal bath fixed to the floor of one of the four "punishment rooms".

The latest finds, on either side of a dividing wall between the third and fourth cellars, back up evidence given to police by some of the 160 witnesses and alleged victims who have come forward since the inquiry was launched more than 18 months ago. Deputy Chief Officer Lenny Harper, who is leading the inquiry, said his team was looking at the possibility that the bone fragments came from a child's skull, linked to the teeth found nearby.

"When you put it in the context of everything we have found so far, it is causing us some concerns," he said. "The first thing we want to know is if the bone is from a skull that is human and secondly, if the teeth are from a child.

"The anthropologist says if we send the teeth away for testing we should be able to take DNA from them to see if they are from the same child or two different children. We can find out whether these teeth were forcibly removed."

He said he expected to find out if the bone fragments were human in the next 10 days.

Mr Harper said former residents had told of physical abuse that corresponded with teeth being knocked out of a child's head.

States of Jersey Police now has a list of 40 suspects and sources have indicated that arrests are likely soon.

A former warden, Gordon Wateridge, 76, has been charged with three offences of indecent assault on girls under 16 between 1969 and 1979.

from Metro, May 28th 2008

Eighth tooth find at Jersey care home

ANOTHER child's tooth and more bone fragments have been unearthed at a former Jersey children's home where allegations of abuse are being investigated. The discovery of the eighth milk tooth was made during a fingertip search of one of four underground chambers, it was revealed yesterday.

Last week, police said an earlier find of teeth and charred human bone parts pointed towards murder, with the remains possibly cremated in a nearby fireplace.

More than 100 people say they were abused at Haut de la Garenne, with claims dating back to the 1960s. There are more than 40 suspects, although just one man has been charged over alleged child abuse so far.

Jersey police make third arrest as parts of 'at least two children' confirmed in cellar of children's home

By Arthur Martin

Last updated at 9:46 AM on 30th May 2008

A third man has been arrested in connection with Jersey sex abuse allegations as police confirm remains found at a former children's home are human 'beyond doubt'.

The 45-year-old suspect was held in custody over 'serious sexual crimes' alleged to have taken place at the home in the 1970s and 1980s.

Five teeth unearthed in a cellar at Haut de la Garenne over the past seven days are from at least two different children, detectives said.

Painstaking tests conducted on the teeth revealed that most were 'very unlikely to have come out naturally before death'.

These results back up suspicions held by detectives that children were murdered during the time they spent living at the home............

Whole article, photos and comments:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1022949/Jersey-police-make-arrest-parts-children-confirmed-cellar-childrens-home.html

Ex-policeman arrested for 'serious crimes' in connection with Jersey child abuse inquiry

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:46 AM on 13th June 2008

An ex-police officer was arrested in connection with an abuse investigation at a former children's home in Jersey.

The 50-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of "serious crimes" at the Haut de la Garenne home and elsewhere in Jersey.

A police spokeswoman would not say what the crimes were or confirm his identity.

It is understood he is a former Jersey police officer who worked as a volunteer at the home before leaving the force to work with the Jersey children's service.

The spokeswoman said: "The man has been arrested in connection with serious crimes at Haut de la Garenne and elsewhere in Jersey.

"The States of Jersey Police can confirm that a number of searches are also being carried out in connection with this arrest and the historical abuse inquiry today.

"No further details will be given unless charges follow.".........

Article/photos here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1026179/Ex-policeman-arrested-crimes-connection-Jersey-child-abuse-inquiry.html

Home to something evil

What really happened at Haut de la Garenne, the children's home at the centre of the Jersey care scandal last year? Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy report on a building that still houses some very dark secrets

Cathy Scott-Clark
The Guardian, Saturday 14 March 2009

How Jersey's tourism bosses must have lamented the marketing slogan they chose last year: "Small enough to really get to know, yet still big enough to surprise."

It was supposed to mark a campaign to rejuvenate the holiday business.

Instead, it served to highlight a child abuse scandal that erupted on the island.

The story had first trickled out in November 2007, gaining almost no press attention. Following a covert police inquiry into allegations of mistreatment in the island's care homes, police and the NSPCC in London had appealed to former residents to come forward. By January 2008, hundreds were said to have made contact, reporting physical and sexual abuse, mostly at Haut de la Garenne, a grim, Victorian industrial school that had, until the mid-80s, served as Jersey's main children's home. Soon, Jersey was in the grip of one of the largest police child abuse inquiries seen anywhere in Britain.

How would the tiny island and its 88,000 residents hold up? They pride themselves on their traditionalism (the pound note survives here) and an independent spirit that locals refer to as the Jersey Way. The mantra, reflecting a closed community that knows how to look after itself, is credited with transforming the place from a bourgeois bucket-and-spade resort in the 50s into the oyster-shucking tax haven it is today. So potent is the lure of the island's low-tax, non-intrusive regime that the level of wealth required of prospective settlers has risen to stratospheric levels: only those who can pay a residency fee of about £1m and show assets in excess of £20m need apply. The lucky few include racing driver Nigel Mansell, golfer Ian Woosnam, broadcaster Alan Whicker and writer Jack Higgins, as well as hundreds of reclusive tycoons, who have made the island the third richest compact community in the world, after Bermuda and Luxembourg.

And then February 2008 arrived like a fist in the face. All anyone on the outside looking in could talk about was paedophiles. Then Jersey police announced they were investigating murder as well as complaints of physical and sexual abuse: witnesses said they recalled seeing the corpses of children at Haut de la Garenne; others claimed to have found bones buried beneath the foundations.

What made it worse for those on the inside was that the crisis had been started by an outsider, a Northern Irish copper called Lenny Harper, second-in-command of the island's police force, and the antithesis of the Jersey Way. Instead of managing bad news, Harper had teams of forensics specialists excavating for it. Every day, sitting on a granite wall outside the home, Harper regaled the world's press with stories that "something evil" had happened there - Haut de la Garenne had been a virtual charnel house. The first find was a sliver of human skull on 23 February. As the investigation progressed, the supposed tally rose to "six or more" bodies buried beneath the home.

By August last year, Harper had retired, to be replaced by a new policeman from the British mainland. More experienced than Harper, detective superintendent Mick Gradwell was a veteran whose cases included the deaths of 23 Chinese cockle-pickers at Morecambe Bay in 2004.

At his first press conference, on 12 November, Gladwell stunned reporters with his findings: "There were no bodies, no dead children, no credible allegations of murder and no suspects for murder." Only three bone fragments could be definitely said to be human, he said - and they dated from the 14th to 17th centuries. Newspapers ran gleeful headlines: "Lenny Harper lost the plot." By the time we arrived on Jersey in February 2009, a year after the digging had begun, it was as if Harper and his inquiry had never existed.

The Jersey establishment was triumphant. One of the island's most senior social workers expressed a view we were to hear many times: "I'm not saying all the former children's home residents are liars but some have misremembered," he said. "Some have embellished and a small number have been telling porkies to get money." Nothing was wrong with the island. Jersey was off the hook. It was all a cock-up.

Nothing could be further from the truth............

More here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/14/haut-de-la-garenne

Jersey politician who claimed of child abuse cover-up arrested over 'data breach'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:35 PM on 06th April 2009

A controversial Jersey politician who claimed officials on the island covered up child abuse was arrested at his home today.

Stuart Syvret was arrested in the parish of Grouville in connection with an alleged breach of data protection law, sources have said.

The 43-year-old senator is currently in custody helping police with their inquiries.

A spokeswoman for Jersey Police said: 'We can confirm that a 43-year-old man is in custody helping us with our inquiries.

'He was arrested this morning in connection with alleged breaches of data protection law.'

Following the arrest, Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming said he had sent a letter to Justice Secretary Jack Straw asking him to monitor the situation because he believed it could be 'motivated by political reasons'.

Syvret was an outspoken critic of the establishment's handling of the historic police investigation into child abuse on the island and in 2007 he was dismissed from his post as Minister for Health and Social Services after claiming abuse cases were being covered up..........

Complete article, photos & comments here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1168045/Jersey-politician-claimed-child-abuse-cover-arrested-data-breach.html

Jersey politician in abuse cover-up claims could sue police over arrest

Tuesday, 7 April 2009

A controversial Jersey politician who claimed officials on the island covered up child abuse is considering legal action against police after he was arrested.

Whistle-blower Stuart Syvret was arrested yesterday in connection with an alleged breach of data protection law.

The 43-year-old senator was not charged and, after a day in custody, was released pending further inquiries. He said officers searched his home and he was kept in a cell all day, other than for a two-hour interview.

He claims police did not have a warrant to search his property and believes the arrest was politically motivated. He said: The whole exercise was designed to intimidate and harass me and to intimidate the whistle-blowers who give me information.

I am going to seriously contemplate a legal action of my own because of this. This is what happens to anyone on Jersey who rocks the boat you get clobbered................

More here:

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/jersey-politician-in-abuse-coverup-claims-could-sue-police-over-arrest-14260732.html

The alleged victims of the Jersey child abuse inquiry cannot expect justice, reveals the detective at the centre of the case

By Eileen Fairweather

Last updated at 10:00 PM on 18th April 2009

....Harper, dressed in a crinkled cream suit, seems genuinely unfazed. 'I've served in Brixton, Peckham, Glasgow - I'm used to flak,' he says. 'I don't care what a few establishment cover-up merchants and their pet poodles say about me. But I do care about the victims on Jersey. I'll keep speaking up for their sake.'.......

Article here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1171744/The-alleged-victims-Jersey-child-abuse-inquiry-expect-justice-reveals-detective-centre-case.html

Jersey carer dubbed 'The Perv' convicted of sex attacks in Haut de la Garenne

By Vanessa Allen
Last updated at 2:30 AM on 21st August 2009
Comments (15)

The first man to stand trial over the Jersey children's home abuse scandal was found guilty yesterday of a series of sex attacks on teenagers.

Gordon Wateridge, who was responsible for looking after residents at the Haut de la Garenne home, was convicted of eight indecent assaults of girls in his care.

After the verdict, the 78-year-old, nicknamed 'The Perv' by his victims, was warned he faced jail...........

Read more:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1207961/Jersey-carer-convicted-sex-attacks-Haut-la-Garenne.html#ixzz0P2vN40xw