Third arrest over Jersey inquiry

A third man has been arrested in connection with an investigation into abuse at a former care home in Jersey.

Police said the 45-year-old, from Jersey, was arrested on Thursday.

A 76-year-old has been charged in connection with abuse at the Haut de la Garenne home and a 68-year-old arrested as part of the wider abuse inquiry.

A public inquiry into the way police have handled the case is to be postponed until the primary investigation has ended.

'Unexplained death'

Scores of people have come forward saying they were victims of abuse at the children's home in allegations relating to the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Bone fragments found in the cellar "indicate a homicide or an unexplained death" and there was evidence some had been burnt in a fireplace, police said.

Gordon Claude Wateridge, 76, originally from Croydon, south London, is charged with three offences of indecent assault on girls under 16 between 1969 and 1979.

Claude Donnelly, 68, of St Brelade, on Jersey - arrested as part of the wider inquiry - is charged with raping and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl on Jersey between 1971 and 1974.

Neither of the men have so far entered a plea.

Detectives now say that they have proved "beyond doubt" that the home contained the remains of more than one child.

Police have recovered 10 teeth and at least 30 charred fragments of human bone suggesting the victims' bodies may have been incinerated in a furnace.

Officers say the position of the teeth suggest they ended up in the cellar sometime after the 1940s, but they have yet to discover how or why the fragments got there.

Tests to establish the ages of the people the teeth belonged to have been inconclusive.

Shackles

A covert investigation into abuse of children at the home began in 2006 following allegations by former residents.

In February 2008, acting on information from their investigation, they began an exploratory search of the home.

Later that month, police said they had made "significant" finds in the building's cellar - understood to be a set of shackles and a shallow concrete bath.

Following the discoveries, about 160 people came forward to say they had been abused at the home, with allegations relating to the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Some described subterranean punishment rooms where they had allegedly been drugged, raped and beaten.

As well as shackles and the bath, investigators uncovered a wooden post scrawled with the message: "I've been bad for years and years".