Police to review Bergerac episode in Jersey investigation

Anil Dawar

Jersey police are to review an old episode of the BBC detective series Bergerac as part of their investigation into allegations of sexual and physical abuse at a former children's home.

The police drama, which featured John Nettles as detective sergeant Jim Bergerac, was set on the island and filmed in and around Haut de la Garenne after the home closed in 1986.

Last month, a police ground radar search of the area revealed a number of locations where digging had taken place in a field behind the home, leading to fears that child victims may have been buried there.

Detectives, however, have been informed that the hotspots could date from when the field was made into a fictitious graveyard for an episode of the television series.

Officers are contacting the BBC so they can review the episode to see how much work film-makers carried out in the field.

"The field was turned into a graveyard for the series," PC Baxter Proven, a Jersey police spokesman, said. "They used fibreglass gravestones, but they were going to have a burial scene so they also actually dug a number of full graves.

"It accounts for the anomalies we found on the ground radar. We will be looking at getting the episode featuring the graveyard scene."

Officers - who have described the situation as "unfortunate" - will have to fully excavate the site to ensure there are no human remains, adding time and cost to the investigation.

"This only relates to the outlying field and doesn't affect the rest of our investigation," Proven added.

Earlier, it emerged that Jersey Tourism had withdrawn all its newspaper and television advertising while the Haut de la Garenne investigation continued.

The move came in order to prevent advertisements appearing next to news bulletins or stories.

"We felt in light of the news stories, which affected the whole of Jersey, that the contrast with holiday advertising was too horrific," Jenny Ellenger, of Jersey Tourism, said.

"As soon as it is appropriate, we will get back into the market."

News of the ad ban came as a specialist military squad joined the search for human remains at the former care home.

Using highly sensitive radar equipment, the six-strong team, which also worked to find bodies buried in the mud slide that engulfed the Cornish village of Boscastle, is helping forensic officers.

Local officers have also been expanding their inquiries to try to establish whether staff at the home may have concealed the suicides of young victims.

Several abuse victims have told detectives they knew of a number of boys who hanged themselves after being raped at Haut de la Garenne, and some believe others died in the home's sick bay.

Detectives have reports of a number of children who may have gone missing after entering the home at various times over the last four decades, many identified only by a first name or nickname.

Police have not ruled out the possibility that children were murdered at the home.