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Jersey abuse inquiry: Police find more teeth at former children's home

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Haroon Siddique

Detectives investigating allegations of abuse at a former Jersey children's home have found a further 14 milk teeth, police said today.

The finds take the total number of children's teeth discovered at Haut de la Garenne to 27. More than 30 bone fragments have been found at the home, which is at the centre of an inquiry into historic child abuse on the island.

The teeth were all found in cellars, apart from one that was located in a cistern in the courtyard. Police said 26 of the teeth were being tested in the UK. Tests to establish the age of the bone fragments have produced conflicting results.

Some experts have suggested the bones date back as far as 150 years, in which case, police have said, there would be no murder inquiry. Others have said they date from the 1950s or 1960s.

Last month, it emerged that the fragment that sparked the search at Haut de la Garenne - initially described as being part of a child's skull - was considered more likely to be a piece of wood or coconut shell than bone.

More than 100 people have claimed they were abused at Haut de la Garenne.

Forensic teams uncovered a network of four secret underground chambers where the teeth and bone fragments were discovered.

Police have identified around 70 suspects, or "people of interest", they want to question. Two men have been charged in connection with alleged child abuse at Haut de la Garenne.

Gordon Claude Wateridge, 76, originally from London, is charged with three offences of indecent assault on girls under 16 between 1969 and 1979 when he was a warder at the home.

Michael Aubin, 45, who was born in Jersey and lives in Southampton, is accused of sodomy against a boy under 16 and indecently assaulting two other boys under 16. The allegations relate to incidents that took place between 1977 and 1980.

A third man, 68-year-old Claude Donnelly, of St Brelade, Jersey, has been charged as part of the wider abuse inquiry. He is accused of raping and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl on the island between 1971 and 1974.

2008 Jun 11