Man claims abuse at Jersey home

An ex-resident of the former care home in Jersey at the centre of child abuse allegations said he and other boys "were being groomed by paedophiles".

Carl Denning, 49, from Gwynedd, arrived at Haut de la Garenne in 1964 at the age of six and said he quickly found he was "getting messed around with".

He said at one point he stumbled upon a cellar and was chased off by someone he had never met before.

Some 160 people have now come forward claiming they were abused at the home.

Officers are searching the property for human remains after the discovery of a child's skull on Saturday.

The inquiry into the allegations stretches over 40 years.

Mr Denning said: "I'd had a difficult childhood at home. It was supposed to be a far better place.

"At first it did seem like that but then we started getting messed around with by someone we didn't know.

"It was always at night when we were put to bed. Lights went out. Occasionally somebody would come in and mess around with one of us in the dormitory.

"It was sexual.

"There was an occasion when I was in sick bay and I was threatened and made to do stuff with another young boy. I was only about six at the time.

"Now you see it [as] not nice, but then you didn't know any different.

"I found my way down to a basement at one time - it wasn't that we were taken there - but I don't remember much about that.

Shackles

"We were chased off by someone, again someone I had never met before, and we were warned if we went anywhere near there again we'd be put in solitary."

Police search teams have also been digging turf around the home's grounds which they believe may have been disturbed.

The BBC has had learned shackles found in the cellar had been found on the floor but may once have been fastened to the wall.

Mr Denning said the discoveries at the home were "stressing me out".

He said: "It's a shock really. You just can't think that all this is going on.

"It looks like we were being groomed for paedophiles, at the end of the day."

He has yet to report his allegations to the police.