Police try to break into cellar at Jersey home

Jersey police were last night trying to smash their way into a bricked-up cellar in search of more remains at the former children's home where a skull was dug up on Saturday.
Lenny Harper, the police officer in charge, has said he fears that six or more bodies may be buried in and around the building. Yesterday he confirmed that police had a list of missing children who they think may be relevant.

"There are a number of names that we have got but ... we can't connect any of them [to the inquiry] at this moment in time," he said.

The basement at the Haut de la Garenne children's home has been filled with concrete and bricked up, but a sniffer dog trained to detect human remains has indicated that more bodies may be hidden. Historical records show children at the home were forced into solitary confinement, but when asked if the cellar was used for this purpose Harper declined to comment. The dog has also identified several potential spots in the courtyard of the property which may well be dug up.

"We have had some positive indications from the dog, which is trained to detect human remains, but that could have a number of answers," Harper said yesterday. "The dog indicated a number of areas above the cellar, but one area he indicated more than others."

Another 10 people, from Jersey and the UK, have contacted police over the weekend claiming to have been abused at the home, which closed in 1986 and has since been turned into a youth hostel.

Since the far-reaching child abuse investigation went public in November last year, 150 alleged victims have been in touch, some of them now living as far away as Australia and Thailand. The police have also identified 40 suspects, most of whom worked at Haut de la Garenne.

So far, just one man, a 76-year-old who worked at the home in the 1960s and 70s, has been charged with child abuse.

Harper confirmed that bones found at Haut de la Garenne five years ago had been underneath the same corridor where the skull was recently found. At the time, they were assumed to be animal bones, but in the light of the potential murder inquiry Harper's team is trying to find them and have them reanalysed.

The skull found on Saturday will be sent for analysis in the UK.

Claims emerged yesterday that the skull had been dug up and reburied. Stuart Syvret, former health and social services minister, said: "The remains of the body which have been discovered had been dug up five years ago.

"The person who did it clearly thought the renovation of the building into a youth hostel would be a good opportunity to hide the bones under concrete for ever." Syvret has campaigned for years to expose alleged abuses at the home.

Harper said there had been no evidence so far of a government cover-up, but added that he was investigating allegations that earlier reports of abuse were not followed up properly. "Part of the inquiry will be the fact that a lot of the victims tried to report their assaults but for some reason or another they were not dealt with as they should be," he said.

Officers were alerted to the hilltop site, which also used to be an orphanage, after they opened a historical child abuse investigation and noticed that a large number of the alleged abusers all had connections to Haut de la Garenne.

Founded in 1857 as the Jersey Industrial school, its aim was to "make bad boys good" by offering them a healthy environment where idle and disorderly habits would be discouraged. Initially, around 100 boys, aged between six and 15, were accommodated at the school. From 1959 girls were accepted.

Frank Lewis, a former resident, said the regime was tough and the headmaster, a Mr Badham, was known for his violence. "Within a week he'd flogged me till I bled in front of the whole school and had cut off a boy's finger with a sharp cane," he told the Jersey Evening News before he died.

Kenny Le Quesne, 57, was a resident at the home for six weeks in the mid-1960s. He described a culture of terror and fear at the institution. "My mother sent me there after she caught me stealing some money from her purse," he said. "One of the boys chucked a lump of fat into the stew I was eating in the lunch hall. One of the guards saw me take it out and hit me. He told me to eat it. When I refused he hit me again."

It was reported yesterday that Edward Paisnel, a paedophile dubbed the Beast of Jersey, visited Haut de la Garenne dressed as Father Christmas in the 1960s. Paisnel - who died in 1994 - was found guilty of 13 counts of assault, rape and sodomy in 1971, but police in Jersey said there was "no evidence" to link him with the skull.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/26/ukcrime.childprotection