Trenches filled with lime found at Jersey 'house of horrors' care home

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Two secret pits filled with a substance that can be used to decompose bodies have been found in the grounds of the Jersey care home where child remains were found.

The mysterious trenches - one measuring 5ft deep - were filled with lime, which destroys flesh and bones.

The two pits are being excavated near the boy's dormitory at a former Jersey children's home where the remains of a child's skull were uncovered.

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Police have been searching the Haut de la Garenne care home since a fragment of a child's skull was found in February

The inquiry team at Haut de la Garenne, the home where more than 100 people claim they were abused, were contacted by a man claiming he was asked to dig the pits during the 1970s or 1980s.

The man told police that, when he asked what they were for, care staff told him "it was none of his concern".

When he returned the following day he was ordered to fill in the pits.

A police spokeswoman said forensic teams have excavated one pit and are working on the second.

She said: "The team excavated the first pit and found it to be about 1.5 metres deep.

"At the bottom of the pit was a large quantity of lime. There was nothing else in the hole.

"The inquiry team can think of no reason why this pit would have been created, nor why it was filled with lime.

"We would emphasise that we have no evidence of any motive. We are currently excavating the second pit which is very close to what was the boys' dormitory."

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More then 100 people have come forward to say they were victims of abuse at the care home

Haut de la Garenne was dubbed the "house of horrors" after fragments of a child's skull were found in February.

Tests on the skull, which was buried under a stairwell, were unable to identify the child but revealed that the bone was placed at that location no earlier than the 1920s.

The home is at the centre of one of Britain's biggest ever abuse investigations with more than 100 people claiming they were assaulted there since the 1960s.

Some of the victims claim they were kept in solitary confinement and attacked in secret underground chambers known as "punishment rooms".

There was also a large quantity of lime found in the stairwell where the skull fragment was found.

Archaeologists who carried out tests said this meant it could not have been buried "in a much less favourable environment" and the protein collagen had been completely destroyed in the bone.

Police have also found and excavated a network of four underground rooms. They have found a number of items, including shackles and a bath, which they say corroborate claims from victims.

The police spokeswoman said: "The forensic examination of the third and fourth rooms of the cellars continues.

"A number of finds have been made and are being studied. They have the potential to further corroborate the versions of events given to us by victims who have come forward."

So far only one man has been charged in connection with the abuse inquiry, which focuses on Haut de la Garenne but involves other care homes on Jersey.

Gordon Claude Wateridge is charged with three offences of indecent assault on girls under 16 between 1969 and 1979 when he was warder at the home.

The 76-year-old is on conditional bail and will next appear before St Helier Magistrates' Court on May 12 at 10am.

Wateridge, who is originally from Croydon, south London, has not entered a plea. There are more than 40 suspects in the inquiry as a whole.

Haut de la Garenne closed as a children's home in 1986.

It is expected that this work will continue into next week.

 

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