Jersey police discover trapdoor at Haut de la Garenne home

David Brown of the Times in Jersey, and Fran Yeoman

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.

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.

Detectives are also investigating reports that bones have been found in the field behind the home, which is now used as a youth hostel.

Mr Harper said that they had begun removing topsoil from the field were members of the public had reported finding bones.

“The bones are still in the ground,” he said. “This is an agricultural community and they could be animal bones but we can’t be sure until we find them.”

Searches have also started at another adjoining field where a police sniffer dog indicated the presence of possible human remains last week.

Recently discovered plans of the home show that the current cellars were in fact the original ground floor of the building when it was constructed in the 1860s. It appears the building was changed about 90 years ago.

Vicky Coupland, the crime scene manager, said that the search teams were unable to stand upright in the cellar: "Not being able to work at a standing position makes life more uncomfortable," she said.

The trap door is in a bedroom off a corridor where a part of a human skull was discovered below several inches of concrete on Saturday.

Speaking outside Haut de la Garenne, Mr Harper said that police are "hoping to recruit 12 more investigators" to assist with the ever-expanding inquiry.