Jersey Abuse Scandal: Questions & Answers

Police excavating Haut de la Garenne, a former children's home, may have unearthed more human remains. How did the investigation begin, who is involved and what have the police discovered?

David Brown, from Times Online, March 3, 2008

What do former residents allege took place at the Haut de la Garenne children's home?
Police have received information from 160 former residents. They have alleged that they were sexually and physically abused by some of their carers and outsiders. Some have given detectives graphic accounts of being taken through a trap door into a ?deep, dark place? for punishment before being abused.

How and when did this investigation begin?
It started in 2004 when a former resident of Haut de la Garenne was convicted of attempting to blackmail his former care worker with allegations that he was a paedophile. By autumn last year police believed that they had uncovered enough evidence to mount an ?historic sexual abuse inquiry? in the Haut de la Garenne, a sea cadets' group that used the building and Greenfields, another children's home. The investigation focuses on dates between the 1960s and 1986, when Haut de la Garenne was closed.

Why was nothing done until so long after the home closed?
Police have uncovered evidence that a number of agencies, including at least one serving police officer, had not responded appropriately to allegations of sexual abuse in the island?s child care system. Although police have ruled out a government conspiracy to cover up the allegations, they have said that prominent members of the island's establishment are being investigated. It is not unusual for child abuse allegations to arise many years after the offences occurred.

How many people have been arrested?
Gordon Wateridge, 76, a former warden at Haut de la Garenne, is the only person to be charged so far. He is accused of indecently assaulting three girls under the age of 16 between 1969 and 1973. Police are preparing files against a number of other suspects for the island's Law Officers, the equivalent of the Crown Prosecution Service.

What have the police discovered so far?
Dozens of witnesses have given detailed accounts of abuse they are alleged to have suffered at the home. Police have also found a piece of a child?s skull buried beneath the floor of the home, although the age of the samples has not yet been confirmed. Other pieces of bone were discovered today and have been sent for analysis.

What happens next?
Painstaking searches at Haut de la Garenne will continue for at least four weeks, focused on the areas where sniffer dogs indicated the presence of possible human remains. Detectives will also have to take detailed statements from all alleged victims and witnesses before they can arrest the suspects. The investigation is expected to take at least a further 12 months.