Jersey children's home police find 'bloodstained items'

David Batty

Police found the items in secret underground chambers. Photograph: Graeme Robertson

Police have found several bloodstained items in two secret underground chambers at a former children's home in Jersey at the centre of a major child abuse investigation.

The items were discovered in the last few days by officers searching the cellars of the Haut de la Garenne care home where more than 160 people have claimed they were beaten, drugged and raped from the 1960s to the 1980s.

The island's deputy police chief, Lenny Harper, said at this stage it was not clear if the items - details of which have not been released - had an innocent explanation.

The police inquiry is focused on Haut de la Garenne, which closed as a children's home in 1986, but a number of other care facilities on Jersey are also being investigated.

A fragment of a child's skull was found buried under a stairwell at the former home in February. Tests have been unable to identify the child or accurately date the fragment. Police have said that forensic examinations have suggested that the person must have died before the 1940s.

Forensic teams investigating the site initially uncovered two secret underground chambers where victims said they were kept in solitary confinement and abused. A further two secret rooms were subsequently discovered last month.

In the first cellar to be examined, police found blood spots in a bath as well as shackles. The latest find of more bloodstained items were made in cellars three and four, police said today.

Police believe there may be as many as 40 suspects in the inquiry. So far, one person has been charged in connection with allegations of abuse at Haut de la Garenne.

The home's former warder, Gordon Claude Wateridge, is charged with three offences of indecent assault on girls under 16 between 1969 and 1979. The 76-year-old appeared before St Helier Magistrates' Court earlier this week and was released on conditional bail until 12 May.