Politicians linked to Jersey abuse
David Brown |
The Australian
POLICE were yesterday preparing to hunt for a second network of cellars at a Jersey children's home at the centre of allegations of sexual and physical abuse amid claims that prominent island politicians were involved in the alleged crimes.
Search teams hope this week to complete their examination of an underground room they found at the Haut de la Garenne home in which former residents claim to have been brutalised.
A leading member of Jersey's political establishment was confirmed by police yesterday as among those named as an abuser.
Wilfred Krichefski, a senator in Jersey's Government and chairman of several committees on the British Channel island, was said to have regularly visited Haut de la Garenne to abuse boys until his death in 1974.
Living members of the island's establishment, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have also been identified as suspects.
One former resident has claimed he was repeatedly raped at the children's home by Krichefski in 1962 and 1963.
The man, now in his late 50s and living in the West Midlands of England, said that every month, he and another boy would be taken into a back room at the home and abused by two men.
The former resident said he would be woken by a care worker with the words: "There is someone here to see you."
The only person he told about the abuse was a psychiatrist who told him that he would be placed in a mental hospital if he repeated the allegations.
The activities of more than 40 suspects are being monitored by police as detectives confirmed they had received complaints of abuse that allegedly took place only months ago.
A police spokesman said: "There was an offence committed late last year which is being dealt with. It is not related to offences committed" at Haut de la Garenne.
Investigations into claims of abuse started in 2003, when a former resident of Haut de la Garenne, which closed in 1986, was convicted of blackmailing a care worker by threatening to expose him as a pedophile.
The investigation has been widened to include the Greenfields Secure Unit and the Sea Cadet force that used Haut de la Garenne. More than 200 alleged victims and witnesses have contacted police about abuse from the 1960s to 1986.
The first underground chamber to be uncovered at Haut de la Garenne is a room containing a 1.5m deep communal bath. A pair of shackles were found in the room. Detectives exploring the cellar hope to break through to an adjoining chamber that has a bricked-up doorway.
Former residents have told detectives that the cellar complex, referred to as Baintree, was used to punish misbehaving children. Victims have described being lowered into a "deep, dark pit" where they were left with other children in a large bath of cold water before being abused by care workers and outsiders.
Police believe a similar-sized underground complex could also exist in Haut de la Garenne's north wing, close to where a piece of a child's skull was discovered last month.
Detectives are reviewing the discovery at the spot in 2003 of other bones, which were thought to have come from an animal.
They will also investigate an underground storage area close to the building's swimming pool and two 3m-deep pits in the courtyard.
Detention cells in which former residents claim they were abused in the main building will be examined, as well as the newer Aviemore wing.
The investigation has damaged Jersey's image and threatened its tourist industry, the island's economic manager said.
After a meeting of hotel and travel bosses in the capital, St Helier, Jersey-born Philip Ozouf said: "Nothing has changed - it's a caring, compassionate and secure island."
Jersey attracted nearly 400,000 visitors last year, 80 per cent of whom were British.
The island was "being portrayed in a sensationalistic way ... there is no evidence of anything for now", Mr Ozouf said.
The Times, AFP