Man charged in Jersey abuse probe

A 62-year-old man has been charged in connection with Jersey's historical abuse inquiry, police have said.

Leonard Miles Vandenborn, who lives in the island, faces 27 charges.

These include accusations of rape and indecent assaults committed between 1975 and 1986 against two girls on separate occasions.

Mr Vandenborn has been remanded in custody to appear before a magistrate at 1000 on Monday 5 October, according to Jersey police.

In 2006, the island's police began investigating abuse claims at children's institutions dating from the early 1960s to 1986.

Gordon Wateridge, who worked at the Haut de la Garenne children's home, was jailed in Spetember 2009 for two years after being convicted of sex attacks on teenage girls in the 1970s.

Two other men, Michael Aubin and Claude James Donnelly, have been convicted of sexual offences following the investigation, codenamed Operation Rectangle.

Not all the charges in the investigation relate to the Haut de la Garenne home.

There had earlier been suggestions of murders taking place at the home, and following extensive searches police initially claimed to have found traces of blood, a fragment of a child's skull and secret underground "dungeons".

But in November 2008, these claims were discredited. Senior officers admitted there was no evidence of any murders and said "misleading" information had been wrongly made public.

In July 2009 the police dropped 13 cases on the advice of Jersey's attorney general.