Probation for care home abuse man

A man who sexually abused boys at a Jersey care home when he was a teenage resident there in the 1970s has been sentenced to two years probation.

Michael Aubin, 46, of Southampton, admitted two counts of indecent assault and two of gross indecency on children under 10 at Haut de la Garenne.

The Jersey-born cleaner was aged 14 to 16 when he abused two young boys who were aged between eight and 10.

He pleaded guilty to the four charges at Jersey's Royal Court last month.

Defendant abused

Aubin, a resident at Haut de la Garenne from the age of three, is the first person to be convicted following a wide-ranging police investigation into historic child abuse on the island.

It centred on the Haut de la Garenne care home and police amassed a list of 40 suspects after scores of people came forward claiming they were sexually and physically abused there.

Aubin had told police in an interview that he himself had been a victim of abuse while resident at the home.

The court heard he suffered serious sexual abuse at the children's home in St Martin.

Passing a sentence of two years' probation, presiding judge Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith said the court had to consider how Aubin would have been dealt with in the late-1970s, as a 14-year-old.

"The court would have been faced with a boy aged 14 years old, with all the mitigation that goes with youth," he said.

"He would have been brought up in the institutional environment. He would have been presented as a victim of serious sexual abuse himself.

'Sad picture'

"Although these offences were serious, they were not the most serious level of the scale.

"At 14 years old, he would not have been equipped to show the same restraint as an adult."

Prosecutor Stephen Baker read a victim impact statement from one of the victims - now in his early 40s - which said that he had nightmares had been forced to leave Jersey because it held nothing but "bad memories".

In mitigation, defending counsel David Hopwood said his client's life was a "sad picture".

"He was sexually abused at Haut de la Garenne. He was emotionally neglected throughout his early life. It was a brutalising process," he said.

Mr Hopwood added that Aubin had "expressed regret and disgust for what he did" and said that the care authorities must "bear some responsibility".

Aubin had been held in custody since his arrest in May 2008 - equivalent to a 19-month prison sentence.