Jersey carer dubbed 'The Perv' convicted of sex attacks in Haut de la Garenne

By Vanessa Allen

The first man to stand trial over the Jersey children's home abuse scandal was found guilty yesterday of a series of sex attacks on teenagers.

Gordon Wateridge, who was responsible for looking after residents at the Haut de la Garenne home, was convicted of eight indecent assaults of girls in his care.

After the verdict, the 78-year-old, nicknamed 'The Perv' by his victims, was warned he faced jail.

Gordon Wateridge

The 'perv': Gordon Wateridge faces jail after he was found guilty of carrying out eight indecent assaults on teenage girls

Haut de la Garenne was called the 'Jersey House of Horrors' after detectives said the remains of at least five children had been found there, alongside so-called punishment rooms.

Police have since admitted that the bone fragments may not be human, and could be hundreds of years old.

One fragment believed to have been from a skull was later shown to have been a piece of wood or coconut.

The finds were uncovered during a year-long investigation into historical child abuse on the island.

More than 150 alleged victims told police they were abused at Haut de la Garenne and other Jersey homes between the 1940s and 1980s.

Wateridge, who worked at the home in the 1970s, was found guilty of eight charges of indecent assault against three teenage girls and one charge of assault against a teenage boy.

Jersey Royal Court heard that he was a 'persistent sexual bully' towards his female victims, who were all under 16 at the time of the attacks.

They told the court that Wateridge had taken advantage of his position to kiss and grope them.

One woman broke down in tears as she described how he had repeatedly grabbed her and other girls as they walked past the home's snooker table, pushing them on to the table and groping them.

She said: 'He was pretending to tickle me but from my point of view he was having a good feel. His hands would be moving up and down the inside of my leg.

'I was a girl of 13 or 14, he was a big man, I would be shouting to stop.'

The woman, now 53, who was sent to the home after her father died, said she had not felt able to report the abuse. 'No one would have listened,' she said.

Another woman said she had felt 'dirty' after being repeatedly groped by Wateridge. She said he once commented that she had 'child-bearing hips'.

'It was not something you would expect an adult to say to a child,' she told the court.

Judge Christopher Pitchers told Wateridge that he faced a custodial sentence. The pensioner, who had denied all the charges, was cleared of another 11 counts of indecent assault and one charge of incitement to indecent assault.

Wateridge, who was born in Croydon, South London, and now lives in Jersey, will be sentenced next month. He was released on bail.

He was the first person to stand trial over the abuse investigation, although a second man, Michael Aubin, 46, admitted sexually abusing boys at Haut de la Garenne while he was a teenage resident there.

Aubin was spared prison after the court heard he had been the victim of serious sexual abuse by at least one member of staff at the home, which closed in 1986.

Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell said outside the court that the abuse investigation on the island was continuing.

He added: 'Gordon Wateridge, a house parent at Haut de la Garenne, was a sexual bully towards vulnerable young girls in his care. We hope the complainants involved in this trial have received some comfort from the decision reached by the court.