Resolved Jersey - Skeletal remains at Haut de la Garenne, Feb'08 - NOT BONES

[martin walkerdine]

The first pictures of a former care home's basement in Jersey where police are searching for human remains have been released.
The basement

The property, called Haut de la Garenne, is at the centre of a child abuse scandal.

Forensic teams have been searching for bodies ever since a child's skull was found under a floor in a stairwell in the north-west corner of the building.

The new images show the brickwork and wooden frames of the basement and rubble scattered across its floor.
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Excavation of the site has stopped to relieve the forensic teams, who have been working up to 13 hours a day.

There are now more than 160 victims involved in the investigation and 40 suspects.

The allegations focus on the 1970s and 1980s and some date back more than 40 years.
Excavation work on hold

Police have discovered secret underground chambers, which victims described as "punishment rooms".

Search teams have excavated one bricked up chamber, which is where former residents have said they were kept in solitary confinement, raped and beaten.

Police have confirmed there is a second bricked up chamber and are investigating reports there are two more next to that.

An opening in the ground floor above the first cellar, which victims described as a trap door to the room, has also been for.

you can see these new picture by clicking on the website link below ok

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1307630,00.html

 

[martin walkerdine]

A woman who worked at the former Jersey children's home at the centre of an abuse investigation has said she found children there "frozen with fear".

Christine Bowker volunteered for two months at Haut de la Garenne in 1972. She said the staff were "ice cold" and the children starved of affection.

She told the BBC she left over concerns about the "evil" goings-on in the home.

Excavation work has been ongoing since a child's skull was unearthed under a floor in a stairwell last Saturday.

Around 160 people claim they were abused at the home, in St Martin. The allegations date back to the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

'Sick people'

Mrs Bowker said there had not appeared to be any managers at the home when she was there, just six to eight staff who did not say a "civil word" to her and were very "rigid and controlled".
I recognised the children were absolutely ice cold and frozen with fear
Former worker Christine Bowker


"They totally ignored me and didn't speak much to each other," she said.

"They really looked like sick people - staring eyes and very tense. It was utterly grim.

"If the children relaxed at all or responded to my affection, they glared at the children and they glared at me, and the children then went back into their shells."

When asked if she witnessed any abuse, she said: "No, I didn't see anything like that but I recognised the children were absolutely ice cold and frozen with fear."

When Mrs Bowker, who now lives in Tasmania, tried to tell people about her suspicions, she said she was met with a "wall of silence".

Bricked-up chambers

The police investigation into abuse allegations began covertly in 2006.

Since the child's remains were found last week, dozens of people have come forward claiming they were abused while at Haut de la Garenne.

The building's cellar has become the focus of the investigation


The search has been extended to the building's cellar and grounds, and police suspect there may be four bricked-up chambers in the cellar.

The first pictures of the cellar, released on Sunday, show a bath-like structure, which police say corroborates reports from alleged victims.

Excavations were halted on Sunday to give the forensic team a break but they are due to resume on Monday. The work is expected to take months.

Twelve detectives from forces across England and Wales have been called in to help with the investigation.



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[KatK]

From the BBC:

Jersey Home Witness 'Intimadated'

First Pictures of 'Abuse' Cellar

Jersey Care Home 'Full of Fear'

 

[KatK]

Rally in Jersey over abuse claims

More bones have been found!

Police say the remains, discovered by forensic archaeologists at Haut de la Garenne, could turn out to be animal.

Officers have finished clearing rubble from the first cellar and are planning to start on a second bricked up chamber early next week. Last week sniffer dogs detected two spots of what is said to be human blood and police hope to extract a DNA profile.

 

[Brefie]

From the BBC:

Jersey Home Witness 'Intimadated'

From the link:

"Mr Harper told reporters police had been able to substantiate "to some degree" reports that someone had been approached by a former care worker."

It just gets ever more twisted. How old would this 'former care worker' have to be?? I think this means that this will blow up to be absolutely huge. I cannot wait until they start capturing and sentencing these sick, twisted and cruel perverts who probably thought they were WAAAY past capture! :furious: :furious:

 

[KatK]

From the link:

"Mr Harper told reporters police had been able to substantiate "to some degree" reports that someone had been approached by a former care worker." <snip>

*nod* I do think they figured they'd gotten away clean. :furious: :furious: :furious:, indeed! Look at the right hand column on any BBC news article and you'll see other stories they have done about the incident. If you pull up the "Digging Deep" it is an article that they update regularly, and it has all the stories about this going from most recent at the top, to older ones.

 

[Brefie]

And so it begins.....

"Warden appears in court in Jersey

The first man to be arrested and charged in connection with abuse allegations at a Jersey children's home has appeared in court"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/jersey/7301234.stm

More at link.

 

[curious1]

This is absolutely, well I cannot find the words.

Let's give a big hand to Eddie the Springer Spaniel and his trainer/handler. :clap: Picking up scents through concrete. I know how my ESS was when she was on the scent of something, silly dog would walk straight into a tree, a bench or a wall if she was tracking something that was digging underground like a mole. Bless these people and dogs for what they do. They help to find bodies and solve cases.

 

[shadowraiths]

'It started with a piece of bone' - and a dog
Nick Davies
The Guardian,
Monday May 5 2008

Anybody who has been plugged into the news over the past few months could be forgiven for believing that police searching a former care home in Jersey have already found evidence of children being murdered. This belief could have been encouraged by headlines such as: " 'Six or more' bodies at Jersey children's home" (Evening Standard); "Does Colditz cellar hide a mass grave?" (Daily Mail); "Police 'on verge' of discovering more child remains" (Daily Telegraph); "More remains in secret chamber" (the Times); "Six more bodies feared buried in Jersey home" (the Guardian).

The search is not yet over. It is possible that evidence of homicide will yet emerge. However as of today, as Jersey's deputy chief officer, Lenny Harper, who is leading the inquiry, said last week: "We haven't found any evidence of any death caused by foul play."

Jersey police are running a major inquiry into some very serious allegations of sexual and physical abuse at the children's home. This takes them back into the same very difficult territory explored by numerous mainland forces over the past two decades when former residents of homes in England and Wales came forward with chilling claims of mistreatment. That story is familiar.

Full article: click here

 

[Floh]

Jersey home dossier to reveal children were murdered...then burnt

A SHOCK secret police report into the Jersey House of Hell children's home reveals youngsters there WERE murdered then BURNED in a furnace to COVER UP the atrocities.
It's feared island authorities may try to hush up the dossier on Haut de la Garenne orphanage but a source told us: "Officers on this case are in NO DOUBT what went on."
Innocent children WERE raped, murdered and their bodies then BURNT in a FURNACE at the Jersey House of Horrors, says a top-secret police report into the scandal.

More: http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/1307_jersey.shtml

Suffer the little children: Matthew 19:14

 

[KatK]

:twocents: I'll believe it when the BBC news reports it, myself. :twocents::blowkiss:

 

[Cubby]

What was believed to be possible bone fragments were determined to be part of a coconut shell.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ation-historic-child-abuse-island-Jersey.html

http://www.itv.com/news/channel/201...rpers-involvement-in-the-jersey-care-inquiry/