Jersey Care Home Of Horrors - Latest (ITV Evening News)

Jersey Police focus on cellar (ITV News)26-02-08

Police are continuing their excavation of a bricked-up cellar at a Jersey property where they found a child's skull.

Officers were alerted to the former children's home Haut de la Garenne after a child abuse investigation launched last November uncovered allegations dating back to the 1960s.

Intelligence from the investigation led police to search the property, and on Saturday the remains of a child were discovered within the former Victorian school and orphanage in St Martin.

A further six sites are to be looked at, including a number of hotspots at the cellar which were identified by a sniffer dog.

All care agencies in Jersey are now being investigated for failing to act over allegations of child abuse.

The island's deputy chief police officer Lenny Harper said: "We are looking at allegations that a number of agencies didn't deal with things as perhaps they should."

The state's ex-health minister Senator Stuart Seyvret has accused the government of a cover-up.

Jersey's Chief Minister Senator Frank Walker promised an investigation but said: "There is no evidence of a high-level cover-up, as alleged by our former health minister."

It has also emerged that paedophile Edward Paisnel - dubbed the Beast of Jersey - used to visit Haut de la Garenne dressed as Father Christmas to deliver toys and sweets to the children.

He was jailed for thirty years in 1971 after being convicted of 13 counts of assault, rape and sodomy.

Paisnel avoided capture for ten years because he was a respected businessman, husband and guardian of several foster children.

Police have said they are not connecting Paisnel - who died in 1994 - to the current inquiry.

The only person to be charged so far is Gordon Wateridge, a 76-year-old who worked at Haut de la Garenne between 1969 and 1979 and is charged with three offences of indecent assault on girls under 16.