Police: No evidence of murder on British island

JILL LAWLESS

Associated Press

LONDON (AP) - Police investigating claims of abuse at a now-closed children's home on the Channel Island of Jersey say bones found there recently were centuries old and an alleged skull fragment may actually be a Victorian-era coconut.

After the lurid-sounding discoveries earlier this year, media from around the world descended on the tranquil island to write about the horrors discovered in the Haut de la Garenne home.

But on Wednesday, Jersey police said the horrors had been exaggerated.

"There is no suggestion there has been murder or any bodies destroyed," said Deputy Chief Officer David Warcup.

Jersey Police Chief Graham Power has been suspended pending an investigation into the abuse case, which rocked the British island territory between England and France.

Police believe crimes did take place at the home, which closed in 1986, and have been investigating abuse allegations by former residents since 2006. More than 100 people have come forward to say they were physically or sexually abused by staff at Haut de la Garenne, and three men have been charged with sexual abuse.

But the police force says there is nothing to back up the grisly scenario outlined in briefings to the press by former deputy police chief Lenny Harper, who retired in August.

Harper said detectives had found the burned and scarred remains of at least five children, ages 4 to 11, and that attempts were made to conceal the bodies.

Detective Superintendent Michael Gradwell, who took charge of the investigation in September, said Wednesday the rooms that had been described as underground punishment chambers where children were beaten and raped were "just cellars." He said bones found at the home dated from between 1470 and 1670, while the alleged shackles were "just rusty metal."

An item discovered in February and initially thought to be a piece of a child's skull "was more likely a part of a coconut" from the Victorian era.

Warcup expressed "regret that information has been given by police that was not strictly accurate."

"The purpose of today is to say there is a child abuse inquiry but in terms of Haut de la Garenne, there was no murder," Gradwell said.

In a statement given to the BBC, police chief Power said he had been "suspended from duty with immediate effect pending an investigation in relation to my role in the historic child-abuse inquiry."

He added, "I strenuously deny any wrongdoing and will rigorously contest any allegations in respect of my role."

Harper, who now lives in Scotland, told The Daily Telegraph newspaper that he had been right to raise the possibility of murder.

"When we found bone fragments and teeth in a home where we were investigating alleged abuse, what did people expect us to do? Ignore it? You won't find any police force in the country which would have kept that quiet," he was quoted as saying.

The Haut de la Garenne facility opened in 1867 as an industrial school and later served as a children's home. The police inquiry is focused on events that took place in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.