Man faces Jersey child sex charges

Andrew Hough

A 45-year-old man appeared in court yesterday accused of sexual offences against three boys which relate to the long-running child abuse inquiry at a former Jersey care home. Michael Aubin, from Southampton, is the third person charged with abuse alleged to have taken place at the Haut de la Garenne home.

Aubin, who was born in Jersey, was arrested on the British mainland last week and charged with sexual abuse at the weekend, a Jersey police statement said. He is accused with abusing three boys between January 1977 and December 1980.

Aubin appeared before Jersey magistrates yesterday charged with one count of sodomy against an eight year-old boy and two counts of indecent assault against two other boys, aged seven and 13.

Aubin made no application for bail and magistrate Ian Le Marquand remanded him in custody to re-appear later this month.

Other details from the hearing cannot be reported for legal reasons. Police have said more charges could follow.

The home, which closed in 1986, has been the focal point of Jersey police's historical abuse inquiry looking at possible offences dating back to the 1950s.

Last week, police found children's teeth and bone fragments during searches of one of four underground chambers in the cellar of the home in the northeast of the island.

So far officers have found six milk teeth and 30 bone fragments, mostly thought to have come from children.

The two other men facing charges from the inquiry are Claude Donnelly, 68, of St Brelade, and Gordon Wateridge, 76, a former warder at the home.

Donnelly is charged with one count each of rape, indecent assault and gross indecency while Wateridge is accused of three counts of indecent assault on girls under 16 between 1969 and 1979. The pair, who are on conditional bail, are due to appear again before magistrates on separate dates later this year.