‘Well Over 40 Suspects’ In Jersey Abuse Case

Staff at a Jersey care home are being investigated over claims that they covered up suicides and mysterious deaths of children as police discovered further possible human remains yesterday.

Records of deaths during the three decades when children allegedly suffered brutal sexual and physical abuse at Haut de la Garenne are being reviewed after concerns that they were not investigated properly at the time. Police are also drawing up a list of former residents from the 1960s to 1986 who cannot be traced.

More than 160 victims have contacted police with allegations that they were abused in underground punishment rooms, detention cells, the sick bay and during organised boating trips around the island. Some residents and staff have told police that children disappeared during the night.

Lenny Harper, the deputy chief officer of Jersey police, said that the number of suspects in the investigation was now “well over 40” living ones, plus a number who are dead.

“At times there appears to be abuse that was endemic. There also seem to be periods when it was run as it should have been,” he said. “I think we are more looking at a culture rather than a paedophile ring.”
 
The operation has taken officers to Australia, Thailand, Germany and the English mainland.

Mr Harper said: “We continued to excavate the first site at the house and have taken out a few items. It is too early to say what the significance of those are.”

One former resident has told Jersey police that he had doubts about claims that his brother killed himself while they both lived at the home.

“We have recently taken a statement from a man whose brother hanged himself when they were both at the home,” a police spokesman said.

Another person has told detectives that he never saw police investigate three deaths during his time at the home.

Carl Denning, 49, said that during his three years at Haut de la Garenne there were two suicides and one mysterious death in the sick bay.

“The suicides were never spoken of,” Mr Denning said. “No one saw the police turn up to investigate them. If you asked, the staff would just say, ‘It’s been dealt with’. It was as if they had just been swept under the carpet.”

Mr Denning, who said that he was sexually abused at the home between the ages of 5 and 8, claimed a first-floor sick bay and two solitary confinement cells were used by staff and visitors to abuse children.

One child, aged about 12, was found hanged after spending a week in solitary confinement.

The former head of the local volunteer police force, which leads investigations into sudden deaths, said that he had not been aware of any problems at the home.

John Germaine, the previous Connétable of the St Martin’s Parish Honorary Police, said: “In 30 years I was never, never called to Haut de la Garenne and first I heard of the problems was on [last] Sunday.” Search teams discovered more bones yesterday in a pit where they had previously uncovered fragments of a child’s skull. A sniffer dog that was shown the new set of bones gave a strong reaction. The bones have been sent for testing.

Evidence suggests that someone dug out and then filled the pit for a reason that was unconnected with building work.