by Gwyn GB
The Daily Telegraph headlines: ‘Police ‘on verge’ of discovering more child remains’. The paper reports: ‘Police feared they were about to uncover more human remains at a children’s care home last night after breaking into a cellar and discovering another secret chamber.’ It continues, ‘(The breakthrough) looks likely to confirm the worst fears of police, who indicated earlier in the week that the remains of up to seven children could be found.’
29th February: The Guardian headlines: ‘Police discover shackles in Jersey abuse case home: Sources say find tallies with victims’ accounts: Second underground ‘punishment room’ sought.’
1st March: The Daily Telegraph headlines ‘Island of Secrets and Terror Was an establishment cover-up behind a child abuse scandal that went on for decades? In the report: ‘The “deep, dark place” described by many of the 160-plus alleged victims who have now contacted police was exactly as they had last seen it more than 20 years ago and, as police prepare to break into two more cellars, the belief is that they will soon discover the remains of more children who “went missing” from the home. Outside, in the swirling fog that has shrouded parts of the island this week, officers are digging up nearby fields where it is feared yet more remains may have been buried.’
‘...Jersey must ultimately answer two questions: how many of its 90,000 population knew what was going on, and why did none of them do anything about it?’
Monday 3rd March Media Briefing notes from the States of Jersey Police. In these the ‘writing on the wall’ of the cellar which has widely been reported by the media is mentioned, as too is the concrete bath which it’s said, ‘appears to link with accounts from witnesses.’ This briefing also covered rumours on the island that infill for the building had come from elsewhere. It says, ‘Infill to some of the building did come from elsewhere.’ It announces that specialist military personnel are coming over to use ground radar equipment.
This press release also says, ‘Callers to local radio are suggesting the presence of the media may be stirring things up out of proportion but the consensus is that the media reporting has been of benefit to the investigation – encouraging witnesses in coming forward and explaining to the people of Jersey why the enquiries have to be patient and methodical.’
The Daily Telegraph headlines: ‘Revealed: the feared torture chamber at heart of Jersey abuse probe. The report goes on to talk about the ‘cellar’ and the ‘bath’ and says: ‘On a vertical wooden beam rising up from the bath the words “Iv been bad 4 years & years” have been written in black marker pen.’
Tuesday 4th March: A Police press release makes mention of the previous use of Haut de la Garenne by the ‘Bergerac’ production team. ‘The search teams are aware of this issue and the disturbance that may have been made to the grounds when TV sets were established temporarily.’
Tuesday 4th March. The Wiltshire Constabulary report into the handling of the enquiry later finds that Chief Officer Graham Power met with Jersey’s Attorney General on this day, during which the AG raised several concerns that ‘the media reporting to date would result in abuse of process arguments, on the basis that a fair trial would be prejudiced.’ Already there were concerns from politicians and legal experts into how the media were being handled during this investigation.
Friday 7th March: A Police press release confirms that a ‘specialist blood dog’ was put into the cellar and indicated two different spots within the bath. ‘Presumptive tests for blood have given a positive result.’
Monday 10th March: Work begins on a second cellar.
Tuesday 11th March: Lenny Harper says police had received an eye-witness account of an alleged ‘indirect act of violence’ on a little girl at Haut de la Garenne in the 1970s – an account which was causing them concern. Mr Harper said that if the account was accurate there was no doubt that serious injury could have been caused to the child at that time.
He said: ‘Added to that, the witness claims that the child was not seen or heard from again after that incident – though, of course, there could have been an innocent explanation to her disappearance from the home.’
Wednesday 12th March: Lenny Harper says ‘We cannot rule the possibility out that this could be a murder enquiry.’ In response to media queries about a ‘missing child’.
March. BBC television personality Jimmy Saville starts legal proceedings against the Sun newspaper after he claimed it had linked him to the child abuse scandal at Haut de la Garenne. Saville initially denied visiting there, but photographs of him surrounded by children at the home, were later published. The States of Jersey Police say that an allegation of indecent assault at the home in the 1970s, by Saville, was investigated in 2008. There had been insufficient evidence to proceed. (In 2011 Jimmy Saville dies. He is mourned and tributes are paid - until months later allegations of abuse start to appear. By 2012 Operation Yewtree is launched into allegations of historic sexual abuse by Saville and many other people, including prominent celebrities. Hundreds of allegations are investigated against Saville, over 50 years, in hospitals and BBC premises with children and vulnerable adults.)
Monday 17th March. Gordon Claude Wateridge, a former warden at Haut de la Garenne, appears in court charged in connection with historic indecent assaults on children. He’d first been arrested at the end of January.
March 28th The JEP suggest that as the Home was on a hill, the ‘cellars’ were more likely to be foundation cavities as many people on the island had suggested. Lenny Harper replied: ‘The ‘cellars’ are the old ground floor, which became what they are during renovations.
31st March. It’s later revealed that on this day Dr Higham from the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit stated he believed the original remains was not bone. This information was not released to the public/media.
Tuesday 8th April. Jersey Police Press Release states: Further tests have failed to date the initial skull fragment. ‘They do say however, that from a study of the material in the location where the find was made, the bone was placed at that location no earlier than the 1920s.’
‘This leaves us with no knowledge of how, when, or indeed, where, the person died.’
Friday April 9th: The JEP request to publish a photograph of the ‘skull fragment’. They report that Lenny Harper replies, ‘No, this is human being and our advice is that we should treat the piece with dignity.’
Wednesday 16th April: Lenny Harper say they are very concerned about why two pits, including one containing lime, should have been dug in the grounds of the Home. Nothing was found in the pits.
Friday 18th April: Jersey Police announce the skull fragment predates the abuse inquiry period and would not be the subject of a murder investigation.
However, in the same press release, the police say ‘a number of bloodstained items in cellars three and four’ have been found.
Tuesday 22nd April ‘Two Teeth found at Haut de la Garenne in cellars’.
Tuesday 29th April. Arrest of a man in connection with the abuse enquiry.
1st May: Letter sent by the Oxford Laboratory confirming the original find was not bone and almost certainly wood. Again this was not conveyed to the media.
5th May. Local Politician raises rumours that the skull fragment was not human with Chief Officer Power and suggests the record should be put straight.
Tuesday 13th May: Police announced they’ve found more children’s teeth and bone fragments in the cellars and sent them to the UK for testing.
Sunday 18th May: Mail on Sunday reporter David Rose claims that the ‘remains’ had been identified by experts as being a small piece of wood or broken coconut shell.
Sunday 18th May: Jersey Police Press release in response to the MOS article. Lenny Harper summarises the findings of the laboratory examination of the fragment, and says that the laboratory says it would need further examination, rather than repeating the lab’s actual statement that they did not believe it to be bone. This same press release also goes on to say that they have identified 20 pieces
of bone and six children’s teeth from the cellar. ‘We expect the results of the dating next week and will be issuing a press statement about the teeth and bones on receipt of those results. At that stage we will know more about the possibility that there might have been unexplained deaths of children within Haut de la Garenne.’
This attempt to gloss over the findings of the initial remains and instead encourage the media and public to have the worst impressions, is later criticised in the Wiltshire Police Report.
18th May: In a separate Jersey Police press release detailing the finds by sniffer dogs, the police state: ‘This area is of interest to the investigation team as being the location where it is reported that human remains MAY have been recovered previously during renovation in 2003. Further alert indications within the building by the dogs have been corroborated as being human remains and blood.’
Tuesday 21st May: Police press release updating on teeth and bone fragments found. ‘Ten of these bone fragments were found yesterday (in an ashy area of cellar 3) and identified as being human, (Tuesday 20 May) while around 20 were found in the last two weeks.’
‘The bone fragments found have been identified as being human.’
‘Regarding the teeth, of the six we have sent to the UK, five of these cannot have come out naturally before death, and only one of the six has signs of decay. The rest have a lot of root attached. We have been told that teeth could come out naturally during the decomposition process.’
‘Some of the bones exhibit signs of burning, and some show signs of being cut. This means that we COULD have the possibility of an unexplained death – and evidence of a dead child or children in the cellar. There was a fireplace area in the cellar.’
‘What we do not know yet regarding the bone fragments and teeth, is who that person is, or how they died.’
Wednesday 22nd May: Mr Harper holds another press conference and holding a container with a tooth in it, says that evidence found by the team confirmed the remains of, ‘a dead child or dead children.’ He said bone fragments found at the home, some in an old fireplace, had been cut as well as burnt, he adds, ‘This means we could have the possibility of an unexplained death and evidence of a dead child or children in the cellar.’ Referring to the children’s teeth, he said they could not have come out before death.
22nd May. The Express ‘Children “cremated” at Jersey orphanage’. The paper goes on to report: ‘Children may have been cremated in the cellar of a former Jersey orphanage, police said yesterday. A murder inquiry may be launched after 30 bone fragments were found alongside seven milk teeth in an underground chamber at Haut de la Garenne. The remains are said to belong to more than one child.
The paper quotes Mr Harper as saying: ‘Whatever else, we have a dead child or dead children in that cellar. We do not know how they got there or how they died.’
27th May Jersey Police Press Release: ‘There is one further matter we wish to comment on. Criticism has again been levelled at the enquiry team that the initial find in February was "sensationalised" in press releases. We would point out that at all times we have said that we did not know how, where, or when, the person concerned had died.’
Thursday 19th June: Police report they’ve found a total of over 50 children’s teeth on the site.
Thursday 31st July A States of Jersey Police press release is issued clarifying the finds. They confirm they have 65 children’s teeth and bone fragments which are in the UK for testing. The release says that ‘Experts have told us they believe that the 65 teeth COULD come from up to five different children.’
Thursday 31st July The Daily Mail Online reports: ‘At least five youngsters died in suspicious circumstances at the Jersey children's home of horrors - but no one will be charged with murder, police have revealed.
Their burnt and cut remains were hidden and secretly moved around, but police say it is proving impossible to accurately date when they died.
Announcing defeat yesterday, detectives said it was likely nobody would be brought to justice for their deaths.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1040033/Remains-children-Jersey-care-home--killers-escape-justice.html#ixzz3yrr2AYUZ
Thursday 7th August: Lenny Harper retires from the force. This had been planned since before the enquiry started.
Wednesday 12th November. Jersey Police with Deputy Police Chief David Warcup, and the new man heading the Abuse enquiry, Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell, hold a press conference.
Following a review David Warcup says ‘It is unfortunate that we now believe that the information which was put into the public domain by the States of Jersey Police about certain ‘finds’ at Haut de la Garenne was inaccurate, and we regret this.’ The States of Jersey Police are clear that these do not support suggestions that there have been murders at Haut de la Garenne. In particular;
A Piece of Child’s Skull
-An anthropologist made an initial identification as this item being a piece of child’s skull.
-The SIO made a decision to release information to the press about the find.
-On the 31st March 2008 Dr Higham from the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit stated he believed the item was not bone.
-14th April the original anthropologist reviews her initial identification and says she no longer identifies it as part of a skull.
Shackles and Restraints
Jersey Police say these were in fact rusty pieces of metal.
The Bath and Blood Stains
The bath in the under floor voids has no water supply and has not been used as a bath since the 1920s when a brick pillar was constructed within it. Following detailed forensic microscopic examination, no blood has been found. There is nothing suspicious about the bath and no indication this bath has been used in the commission of any offences.
The Cellars
These are floor voids. They are not cellars and it is impossible for a grown person to stand up straight in the floor voids under Haut de la Garenne.
Teeth
There are 65 teeth found in the floor voids and 1 elsewhere. They are milk teeth coming from at least 10 people – up to a maximum of 65 people. Around 45 of the teeth originate from children aged 9 to 12 years and 20 from the range 6 to 8 years. There is wear on some of the teeth; these teeth generally have the appearance of being shed naturally.
Bones
170 pieces of bone which are mainly animal were found in the area of HDLG which was searched. Many more pieces of bone were found in the area of the grounds, all of which are animal.
-Of all that material, there are 3 fragments which are ‘possibly’ human; the biggest piece is 25mm long.
-2 fragments date 1470 to 1650 and the other 1650 to 1950
-These have not definitely been identified as human bone.
The Pits
These were dug in the late 1970s and are unexplained, but nothing suspicious has been found in either of them.
In Summary;
-No people are reported missing
-There are no allegations of murder
-There are no suspects for murder
-There is no specific time period for murder
-We are satisfied that there is no indication or evidence that there have been murders at HDLG
Wednesday 14th July, 2010. Police Chief Graham Power and Senior Investigating Officer Lenny Harper receive strong criticism for their handling of the enquiry following a report by Wiltshire Constabulary. The report’s Executive Summary states: ‘The media needed little encouragement to paint a graphic and horrific picture of institutionalised abuse of vulnerable children on the island. We are clear from the evidence that such reporting was condoned and even encouraged in a number of the States of Jersey Police press releases which variously described the ‘partial remains of a child’, ‘skull’, ‘shackles’, ‘bath’, ‘cellars’ and ‘blood’, none of which transpired to be accurate.’
The report did say that the States of Jersey Police had been misquoted on a number
of occasions, but that no evidence has been found that any steps were taken to address media misreporting.
Both police officers were said to be inexperienced to deal with such an enquiry. Both men strenuously deny any wrong doing.
The Report also found that there had been lavish overspending by Mr Harper in an enquiry that up to June 2010 had cost over seven million pounds. In particular, the report picked out expense claims from Mr Harper which included a £90 a head meal at a London restaurant with a News of the World journalist who later printed a story headlined, ‘All kiddie killers left were burnt bones and 65 teeth’.
On the publication of the Wiltshire Constabulary Report, Jersey’s Home Affairs Minister apologises to the victims who came forward during the enquiry, for the raising of their hopes that justice might have been served after the huge time lapse.
6th December 2010 the Island's Chief Minister makes a formal apology to all those who suffered abuse in the States' residential care system, acknowledging that the care system has failed some children in a serious way.
Following the conclusion of an investigation by the States of Jersey Police, named Operation Rectangle, into historical child sexual, emotional and physical abuse in a number of institutions in Jersey: Operation Rectangle reported and recorded a total of 553 alleged offences between September 2007 and December 2010. Of these, 315 were reported as being committed at Haut de la Garenne Children's Home. Eight people were prosecuted for 145 offences and seven convictions secured. The Police identified 151 named offenders and 192 victims.
2013 A Committee of Inquiry is set up to look into how to improve the island’s care system. It hears evidence from those involved in Operation Rectangle and many more. Its findings are due in 2016/17.
The Wiltshire Constabulary report: https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government and administration/R WiltshirePoliceReportExtracts 20100713 ILeM.pdf
Acknowledgements
Thank you firstly to my husband, Matthew, and our boys for their patience in having to take second priority to this book. To my mother, Mavis, and my father, Len, for their encouragement through the years with my writing.