Child’s remains found at former care home

Steven Swinford and Kevin Dowling

Parts of a child’s skeleton have been found buried under concrete in a former care home by police investigating a suspected abuse ring on Jersey.

The body is believed to date from the 1980s. Officers using sniffer dogs and ground-penetrating radar warned they might find more remains.

The home in St Martin, northeast Jersey, is now a youth hostel. It once housed as many as 60 young people with special needs. The discovery comes four months after police opened their investigation of allegations relating to a period from the 1960s to the early years of this decade.

Most of the abuse is alleged to have happened in the 1970s and 1980s. Inquiries are focusing on the island’s Sea Cadets and the Haut de la Garenne home, where police have been searching for five days. Boys and girls aged between 11 and 15 are said to have been subjected to abuse.

Police opened the investigation after a number of Sea Cadets were convicted of sexual offences. After a public appeal, police received 140 calls and e-mails, which led to the identification of 70 alleged victims and more than 20 suspects.

Lenny Harper, deputy chief of Jersey police, who is leading the case, said the allegations ranged from “pretty severe physical and mental abuse” to the most serious sexual crimes imaginable.

“We will of course be looking to see if there are any criminal implications of why these weren’t brought before the courts,” he added. The hunt for the missing nine-year-old Shannon Mat-thews widened to a police search of a pond and sewers yesterday. Detectives said they were “gravely concerned” about the girl, who disappeared on Tuesday afternoon in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, on her way back home after a school swimming trip.