'Punishment room' uncovered at Jersey site

The discovery of two underground rooms at a former children’s home in Jersey has echoed the accounts of abuse from former residents.

Children who lived at Haut de la Garenne have told detectives of a dark, windowless “punishment room” where victims were caged in solitary confinement.

“Pamela” described a small room, about 12 feet by 16 feet, in which “the most cruel, sadistic and evil acts” were carried out against young victims in the 1970s.

Other victims have told of a “deep dark” place where youngsters were locked up, drugged and sexually abused beneath a trap door.

Workmen renovating the building in the past have told of finding shackles, leg irons and wooden stocks.

Police have now gained access to a subterranean room described as a “chamber” or “cellar” that does not appear on site plans.

A police sniffer dog gave his handlers a strong reaction, suggesting he had found human remains or blood.

The room is around 12 feet square, bricked up from the front, and filled with rock, clay and soil, blocking access.

A second room, about the same size, is still blocked off but officers hope to enter it today. The way it has been bricked up appears suspicious, police said.

Police intend to move artificial lights into the rooms because of the lack of natural light. They have not ruled out finding further rooms.

Deputy police chief Lenny Harper said: “The cellar is exactly as some of the witnesses who made statements described. There is some corroboration for the features that they described in there.”

He refused to elaborate on what police had found, but said they had not found manacles or rope.

Officers will now continue the slow and painstaking process of pulling out the physical evidence from the first room and gaining access to the second. It could take up to two weeks to complete.

When it is, what evidence remains of the horrors that went on inside will, after many years hidden, finally be brought in to the light.