Jersey police search cellar in house where body found

Police investigating allegations of child abuse said on Monday their search of a former children's home in the Channel Islands where a body was found at the weekend was now focused on a bricked-up cellar.

A child's body parts, thought to date from the early 1980s, were unearthed at the Haut de la Garenne house in Jersey on Saturday after a sniffer dog detected them through several inches of concrete.

Sniffer dogs have identified a number of other areas of interest in and outside the house, now used as a youth hostel, said Jersey Deputy Chief Police Officer Lenny Harper, but officers were concentrating on a cellar below the building.

He said police did not know whether more bodies would be found.

"All our efforts are being concentrated on the entrance to a cellar which ... was at one stage bricked up and we are having some difficulty gaining access to that," Harper told reporters at the scene.

He said the investigation was a "very slow and methodical process ... and it's likely to continue that way for some time."

Police had as yet no idea of the identity of the discovered child, he added. Tests to determine the child's sex will be conducted in Britain.

The search of Haut de la Garenne in St Martin began last Tuesday after police received information from three different sources about the possibility of there being remains.

Last November, police launched an investigation into alleged child abuse on the island, including Haut de la Garenne.

Last month, Gordon Wateridge, 76, was charged with three offences of indecent assault on girls under 16 between 1969 and 1979 at Haut de la Garenne.

Jersey's Chief Minister Frank Walker told BBC radio that no effort would be spared in the search for those responsible.

"We need to focus all our resources on supporting fully the police investigation to ensure that ... those who apparently may have perpetrated the most horrendous, horrific crimes (are) brought speedily to justice," he said.

Senator Stuart Syvret, sacked as Jersey's health minister last year after making allegations about child abuse, told BBC radio there had been a cover-up.

"From my own research, speaking to victims from the ages of 13 to their mid to late 60s, it is clear there has been a culturally appalling attitude to vulnerable children in care in Jersey for decades," Syvret said.