Two More 'Punishment Cellars' Discovered at Jersey Care Home

David Brown of The Times, 25 March 2008

Two further cellars allegedly used as punishment rooms where children were physically and sexually abused have been discovered at a Jersey care home.

Detectives said that a further victim has come forward in recent days to describe being abused in one of the rooms at Haut de la Garenne.

Search teams will entre the recently discovered cellars only after completing examinations of two connected rooms where officers have found evidence to support the claims that they were used as torture chambers.

More than 100 former residents have told police that they were subject to abuse by carers and outsiders at the home between the 1960s and its closure in 1986.

Lenny Harper, deputy chief officer of Jersey Police, said this morning: "We have now established that there are a further two rooms.

"We have received evidence from another victim over the last few days which tells of abuse in one of these two new rooms.

"We can confirm that a number of items have been recovered from cellar rooms one and two which tend to corroborate the statements of victims. These could well be of forensic significance."

The first two rooms were discovered behind a bricked-up doorway on the outside of the home. A makeshift trap door had been created to access the cellar from inside the home.

The first room, about 12ft square, contained a large concrete bath and a pair of shackles. A pillar behind the bath had has the words "I've been bad 4 years & years.

In the second room a sniffer dog indicated the presence of possible human remains.

Mr Harper said: "Away from Haut de la Garenne, the enquiry team are continuing work and seeing victims and witnesses. More information has been received about the abuse that went on in the cellar."

Police are still awaiting for the results of carbon dating tests on a fragment of a child's skull found buried in the home.

"Initial tests are inconclusive and more sensitive tests will be carried out," said Mr Harper. "All we can say at the moment is that the skull fragment was placed in the location no earlier than the 1920s."

Detectives are investigating the disappearance of a young girl at Haut de la Garenne as a possible murder inquiry. An eyewitness told officers the child "disappeared" after being hurt in an "indirect act of violence" in the 1970s.

Meanwhile, two firms of lawyers are seeking victims of abuse at the home in preparation of claims for compensation. Jersey Advocates Ozannes and English solicitors Dyer Burdett & Co (DBC) have set up a legal team to advise former residents.

DBC is already representing 18 people who were allegedly physically and sexually abused whilst in the care of Portsmouth Corporation during the 1950s and 60s.

The firm is investigating reports of a link between the Portsmouth cases and Haut de la Garenne.