Skull fragment is not bone

The object found buried under a stairwell at Haut de la Garenne on February 23 as part of a long-running police abuse inquiry was initially thought to be part of a child's skull.

The grim discovery prompted worldwide media attention and led to the home being dubbed the "house of horrors".

But Jersey Police confirmed that experts on the UK mainland now believe the item is not bone and could be "wood or a seed".

Senior officers denied covering up this information, which first came to their attention in early April.

They pointed out the object had been eliminated from their abuse investigation because of the archaeological context in which it was found.

On April 18 Lenny Harper, the senior investigating officer, issued a statement saying the "skull" appeared to date from before 1940 meaning that any suspects were very likely to be dead.

Jersey Police said in a statement: "Mr Harper takes full responsibility for the decision to curtail the debate on the item, which had already been ruled out of the inquiry and which would have indeed distracted attention from the victims of abuse.

"We would point out that this item is one of numerous pieces and fragments of bone identified by the anthropologists working with us as warranting further work. In the last two weeks alone they have identified 20 pieces of bone, together with six children's teeth, all found in the cellar area."

Many of these items are currently undergoing carbon dating and DNA tests in the UK.