The
Jersey children's home - Haut de la Garenne - and other institutions
The former children's home in Jersey, Haut de la
Garenne, is being investigated following previously unheeded complaints that
the children who were placed there until the 1980's were made to suffer gross
abuse and ill-treatment. On February 23, 2008, the remains of a child's body
were found on the premises.
Other children's homes are now being investigated since a UK social worker has
helped to spark a major inquiry into children's services in Jersey. Simon
Bellwood, the "whistle-blower" was sacked after making a complaint
about child protection on the island.
A
series of articles in different UK media, 30 August 2007 --
Jersey
police chief's fury as abuse suspects release ‘scares off’ witnesses
A
furious memorandum from the senior detective in the Jersey child murder and
abuse investigation claims that it has been hampered by prosecutors, destroying
victims’ faith in the justice system.
August 14, 2008
Remains
of five children found at Haut de la Garenne, Jersey former children's home
By David ByersJersey police have discovered the partial remains of
at least five children at Haut de la Garenne, the former children’s home at the
centre of the island’s child abuse investigation.
However,
the grim discoveries of the bone fragments - believed to have come from
youngsters aged between 4 and 11 - may not result in a murder inquiry because
experts have been unable to pinpoint when the children died, the detective
leading the investigation has admitted.
July 31, 2008
Jersey murder inquiry
'unlikely'
Police in Jersey say a murder inquiry may never take
place, despite the discovery of remains of at least five children at a former
children's home.
They
said such an inquiry was unlikely because an exact date could not be put on the
remains, believed to have come from children aged four to 11.
However,
they later insisted no final decision on the case had been made.
BBC
News, 31 July 2008
Police investigating child abuse at a
former Jersey children's home have found teeth and bone fragments.
Five
teeth thought to be from a child aged four or five and slivers of bone were
found in a secret underground chamber.
ITN - 12.05.2008
Ex-warden appears
in Jersey court
The former warden of a Jersey care home has appeared
before magistrates, facing three charges of indecent assault.
Gordon Claude Wateridge, 76, will reappear on 9 June. He formerly worked as a
warden at the Haut de la Garenne care home.
BBC
News, 12 May 2008
An independent team will today arrive in
Jersey to begin a four-day review of the island's child protection system,
which has been described as "barbaric".
The Howard League for Penal Reform will be investigating allegations that
children in protective custody were kept in solitary confinement up until 2007.
inthenews.co.uk, 11 May 2008
Bryn
Estyn victims relive nightmare as Haut de la Garenne gives up secrets
By Ben Glaze
THE child abuse allegations rocking the tiny island of Jersey have brought back
nightmares for victims of the UK’s biggest child sex scandal.
Ten
years ago, 150 former residents of North Wales care homes came forward claiming
they were physically and sexually assaulted as youngsters.
An
independent inquiry slammed police and council officials for failing to act and
made a series of recommendations to prevent such abuse happening again.
The
North Wales probe centred on allegations at Bryn Estyn Boys’ Home and a paedophile
ring around Wrexham and Cheshire, where monsters abused vulnerable youngsters
in care.
It
led to 10 convictions with the culprits jailed for a total of 49 years.
Now
similar claims have been made by former residents of Haut de la Garenne
children’s home in Jersey. Last Saturday police discovered a child’s skull
buried in the grounds and detectives are investigating claims as many as 160
vulnerable youngsters were abused by 40 suspects over more than 20 years.
Ask
Margaret Hodge how horrors can hide
More
than 150 former residents of the care home have come forward with their stories,
and it will also fall to the police to sift through those grim memories from
the 1960s, '70s and '80s. One woman, who spoke anonymously to the BBC last
week, recalled the "punishment room" in which children were sometimes
held alone for two weeks or more. ‘Culture
of concealment’ divides Jersey as abuse scandal grows THE old men of Jersey are racking their
consciences as terrible secrets resurface. Dozens
of senior figures in the island’s tight-knit establishment are facing possible
police questioning over who knew what about abuse, beatings and, con-ceivably,
murder from the 1940s to 1980s at the Haut de la Garenne children’s home. By David Brown The
improvised entrance was discovered this morning in the floorboards above the
two-roomed cellar where police had earlier found a pair of shackles and a large
concrete bath. Lenny Harper, deputy chief officer of Jersey Police, said that
the trapdoor matched the description given by abuse victims who claim they had
been taken down into a “dark pit” at the Haut de la Garenne home. Two
more former residents have given police details of “serious sexual practices”
at the home. Police are investigating allegations of abuse from more than 160
victims involving 40 suspects from the 1960s to the home's closure in 1986. Timesonline,
February 29, 2008 Up
to seven children's bodies still buried in care home By Caroline Gammell, Aislinn Simpson and Lucy Cockcroft in Jersey Police
suspect they will uncover more human remains at a former children's care home
in Jersey in the Channel Islands after breaking into a cellar and discovering another secret chamber
yesterday. The
two caverns, measuring 12ft by 12ft, underneath Haut de la Garenne on Jersey
were bricked up many years ago and filled-in with soil and rock. Police
investigating claims of systematic child abuse over the past six decades have
spent three days concentrating on the area after a sniffer dog picked up a
scent. Alleged
victims told police that the cellar was a place where they were abused. When
a team punched a 3ft hole through the ceiling of the first chamber, what they
found matched descriptions given by former residents. But they soon realised
there was a second adjoining room which was also bricked up. Police
found a bathtub attached to the floor of the first cellar. It is thought it was
used for a form of water torture. independent.ie, February 28 2008 ST
HELIER, JERSEY. FED on salmon and insured for £4.5m ($8.9m), Eddie is a prince
among springer spaniels. The police sniffer-dog justified his lavish lifestyle
on February 23rd, when he led officers to a spot at an old children's home
where, under concrete, lay the remains of a child's skull. Police are digging
up six more patches in the grounds of Haut de la Garenne, a Victorian
“industrial school” that was a children's home until 1986. The excavations are
part of a probe into child sexual abuse going back to the 1940s. Officers have
taken phone calls from more than 160 people who claim to have been mistreated
there, and fear that the home could reveal more bodies. From
The Economist print edition, Feb 28th 2008 Jersey
children's home hell: Victims of Haut de la Garenne tell their story By Victoria Ward And Don Mackay mirror.co.uk,
27/02/2008 Jersey
whistle-blower fears he will be silenced Simon
Bellwood told Community Care that officials could deliberately delay
his forthcoming employment tribunal in the wake of the recent discovery of a
child’s body in a former children’s home. The
social worker also predicted the publication of an independent review of child
protection on Jersey by UK expert Andrew Williamson could be delayed as part of
a “damage limitation exercise”. Community Care, 26 February 2008 The
bricked-up cellar of the Haut de la Garenne children's home was being excavated
last night amid fears it could be a mass grave. The
basement where youngsters were once held in solitary confinement as punishment
may hold the bodies of six children, police believe. Specialist
teams using sniffer dogs and ground radar equipment have identified a number of
suspicious sites around the cellar. by Maria Ahmed
Apart
from Bellwood and former health and social services
minister Stuart Syvret nobody was prepared
to go on the record about children allegedly being put at risk on the island. I
had plenty of anonymous calls basically corroborating Bellwood's and Syvret's
claims. In response, not one Jersey social worker who worked in any of the
establishments under fire from Bellwood and Syvret came forward to set the
record straight. "That's just Jersey culture," one insider explained
to me. Two Jersey social workers I met in London by chance grumbled about
Jersey getting a bad image from my stories, but both declined my offer to put
their views in public. While the island's chief executive Bill Ogley gave us a statement, it did not really probe into why questionable practice had occurred in
the first place. Child's body found
at care home Parts of a child's
body have been found by police in a former children's home in Jersey. Police
believe more bodies may be found at Haut de la Garenne in St Martin, which is at
the centre of an inquiry into alleged child abuse. The
remains are thought to date from the early 1980s. Police have not said whether
they are male or female. The
investigation involves the abuse of boys and girls aged between 11 and 15,
since the 1960s. BBC
News , February 23, 2008 The
remains, which are not thought to be recent, were found at the Haut de la
Garenne site on the island. It
is not known if the skeleton is male or female, a spokeswoman for Jersey police
said. The
discovery was made at around 9.30am this morning by officers who have been
excavating the site for the past four days. The
search is continuing and the spokeswoman said they "could not rule
out" the possibility that more remains will be found. SkyNews,
February 23, 2008 Investigating Jersey's 'abuse' history The current focus is a children's care
home where attacks may have taken place over three decades. On a
hilltop near Jersey's east coast, the buildings are familiar as a setting for
the BBC's Bergerac series. But,
after 12 months of covert investigation, detectives believe the former Haut de
la Garenne care home may have had a more sinister past. Built
at the turn of the 20th Century, Haut de La Garenne served as a school and as
an orphanage, before becoming part of Jersey's childcare provision. BBC News, 4
December 2007 Simon
Bellwood was sacked after making a complaint about a "Dickensian"
system in a secure unit where children as young as 11 were routinely locked up
for 24 hours or more in solitary confinement. Practitioners
including Bellwood claim children in Jersey are being put at risk in child care
services because of deficient practice, poor staff training, lack of external
scrutiny of services and a "culture of fear" preventing staff from
speaking out. Community Care, 07 September 2007 Jersey
whistleblower: Why I went on the record Community Care, 30 August 2007 Lost
in care - The Wales Child Abuse Scandal and the Waterhouse Report
The Telegraph, 02/03/2008By
Brendan Montague, Jersey and Jack Grimston
Timesonline, March 2, 2008
Jersey
police discover trapdoor at Haut de la Garenne home
Police investigating claims of sexual abuse and possible murders at a Jersey
children’s home today found a trapdoor above what appears to be an underground
torture chamber.
Pamela's story: I was drugged, beaten
and sexually abused .. what went on there was cruel, sadistic, evil
writes Maria Ahmed
The UK whistleblower who raised
concerns over child protection in Jersey fears
the island’s government will try to silence him as a police investigation into
child abuse widens.By
Rebecca Camber, Arthur Martin and Michael Seamarck
The Daily Mail, 26th February 2008 Jersey
establishment must start answering questions
The recent discovery of a child's
remains in a former children's home in Jersey has reignited concerns that - at least historically - all is not well on the child protection front. But how far the Jersey
police will get in their inquiry will be interesting to follow.
Social work blog, 25 February 2008
BBC News
Sky News
By Robert Hall
A police investigation in Jersey has highlighted alleged
physical and sexual abuse against children dating back to the 1960s.
Exclusive:
UK social worker blows the whistle on Jersey
writes Maria Ahmed
A UK social worker has helped to spark a major
inquiry into children's services in Jersey amid widespread concerns about child
protection on the island.
writes Simon Bellwood
For me, there were two separate occasions of going ‘on the record’. The
first was back in January when I felt that I had no option but to make a formal
complaint about the treatment of children in the secure children’s home.
The second was when I decided to publicise my concerns with Community Care.
My formal complaint involved compiling a letter into which I put a great
deal of thought and time. I hand delivered it to the Chief Executive of
Health and Social Services and to the Directorate Manager of Social
Services. They independently reassured me, and even thanked me for having
the courage to come forward with my concerns. For a moment I felt
comforted. It seemed probable that my concerns would be investigated and
that the truth would put an end to the punitive treatment of children and young
people in secure accommodation in Jersey. After many months of waiting
and isolation from the workplace, I received notification that “no evidence had
been found” to support my allegations. I was dismissed from my post
within a fortnight.
Six
care workers sacked for whistleblowing awarded £1m