Children's milk teeth discovered in cellar at Jersey 'house of horrors' care home

A pair of milk teeth and bone fragments were found yesterday during excavations of underground chambers at Jersey's Haut de la Garenne home, which is known locally as "Colditz".

The teeth were uncovered during a search of the third and fourth cellars to be excavated and are believed to have come from a five-year-old child.

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The grisly find comes just days after forensic teams uncovered bloodstained items in the cellar where children were said to have been subject to horrific sexual and physical abuse between the 1950s and 2003.

A States of Jersey Police spokeswoman said: "As a result of indications from the dogs working with the inquiry team, forensic archaeologists searched an area of cellar rooms three and four and have discovered some more bone fragments and two 'milk teeth' from a child or children.

"We cannot be sure at this stage if the bone is human or animal and it will be forwarded to the UK for tests.

"The teeth could have come from the same child although further tests will be necessary to try and ascertain if that is the case, and how the teeth might have come to be there."

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The discovery came as specialists continued to probe the final pair of four underground chambers referred to as "punishment rooms" by victims who claim they were physically and sexually abused.

Part of a child's skull has already been recovered from another part of the building buried underneath a stairwell.

Although tests have been unable to identify the child or accurately date the fragment, forensic examinations suggest the person must have died before the 1940s

Search teams also found blood spots on a stone bathtub in an underground chamber which had been bricked up.

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The discovery of the bath corroborated evidence given by people claiming they had been abused in the cellar.

Last week police revealed that they had found found bloodstained items in the same area.

Experts are also continuing to investigate the site of an unexplained pit dug in the 1970s or 1980s.

Police were alerted to the spot by a member of the public who contacted them to say he had been called in by staff and asked to dig two holes near the boys' dormitory.

He was later asked to fill them in again but when he asked staff why he was told it was "none of his concern". Excavation of the first of the two pits has already revealed it had lime at the bottom.

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More than 100 people claim they were abused at the children's home - dubbed Colditz by the locals - which may develop into the worst ever child abuse scandal in Britain.

One person has been charged in connection with the inquiry.

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 month and was released on conditional bail to May 12.

There are thought to be more than 40 suspects in the inquiry as a whole.