Jersey Police Look for More Bodies at Former Children's Home

Police on the island of Jersey were searching for more bodies at a former children's home after information on alleged child abuse spanning five decades led to the discovery of human remains on Feb. 23.

Investigators will focus on a cellar at Haut de la Garenne, Deputy Police Chief Lenny Harper said today in a televised news conference. Police are waiting to gain access to the room, which had been bricked up, he said. Sniffer dogs traced the ``potential'' remains of a child two days ago and helped direct police to the cellar, he said. The other main site for detectives is the island's Sea Cadets premises, police said.

Former Jersey Health Minister Stuart Syvret told the British Broadcasting Corp. there has been a ``culture of cover-up'' over child abuse on the island. Harper denied accusations that a government cover-up had taken place and said police will investigate why complaints to various agencies by alleged victims of abuse weren't addressed earlier.

Police in Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands, said they started searching Haut de la Garenne on Feb. 19 after receiving information relevant to their Historic Abuse Inquiry, according to the force's Web Site.

The first suspect arrested as part of the investigation is Gordon Claude Wateridge, 76, who was charged on Jan. 30 with three counts of indecent assault on girls under 16 and unlawful possession of a firearm, police said in a statement on their Web site. The assaults are alleged to have taken place at Haut de la Garenne between 1969 and 1979. Wateridge was born in Croydon, south of London, and is a Jersey resident, police said.

Possible Victims
Police involved in the Historic Abuse Inquiry said they are contacting possible victims and seeking new evidence. We've had some positive indications from the dogs that are trained to find human remains,'' Harper said when asked about whether more bodies would be found. He said the police were aware of that possibility.''

Experts have traveled from the U.K. to the island off France's northwestern coast to help with the investigation, and an independent inquiry had also been initiated, Chief Minister Frank Walker told Sky News.

It is wholly unprecedented,'' Walker said. The news has been the most severe shock to the people of Jersey,'' he added. The inquiry into allegations of sexual and physical abuse of children at the island's institutions and organizations began Nov. 22, police said. Investigators are looking into serious criminal offenses that date to the 1960s, with some of the alleged crimes taking place since 2000. Most of the cases are from the 1970s and 1980s, police said.

Office of `Bergerac'
Since serving as a children's home, Haut de la Garenne was used as the office of fictional television detective Jim Bergerac and now accommodates young travelers as a location of the Youth Hostel Association. YHA said it spent 2.3 million pounds ($4.5 million) renovating the former school and orphanage to create a 100-bed hostel.
Jersey is a low-tax jurisdiction that has become a center for financial services and a tourist destination. The Bailiwick of Jersey is a dependency of the British crown. The island of 88,000 people isn't part of the U.K. nor is it a full member of the European Union. Defense of the island is the responsibility of the U.K. A free phone number has been set up with the U.K.'s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the NSPCC, for victims to call, police said in a statement on their Web site.
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