Forensic teams pause search at Jersey children's home

Excavation work at a former Jersey care home at the centre of a child abuse scandal will stop today to relieve forensic teams who have been working up to 13 hours a day searching for human remains.

The work at Haut de la Garenne has been constant since a child’s skull was found under a floor in a stairwell in the north west corner of the building last Saturday.

Since then the investigation has grown dramatically with 70 people coming forward in the last week claiming they were abused.

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

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

During the inquiry police have also discovered secret underground chambers which victims described as “punishment rooms”.

So far one has been excavated revealing what detectives said were two “significant finds” – reportedly shackles and a bath.

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

A police spokesman said there would be a scaled-down operation at the site today, with some officers carrying out basic work but the forensic teams would not be on site.

“Today will be a break for them,” he said. “They have been working constantly since last weekend.

“We shall have a couple of officers tidying up the site and that’s about it.”

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

Deputy police chief Lenny Harper said: “We know there is another chamber next to the one we’re working in, we suspect there might be two more running off it.”

Police have also found an opening in the ground floor above the first cellar, which victims described as a trap door to the room.

Yesterday Mr Harper gave a “stark” warning to anyone looking to intimidate victims after one was targeted by a former care worker.

He warned anyone considering approaching witnesses or victims that police would deal with it as a “serious criminal offence”.

He would not confirm or deny reports that the person said to have been approached was a resident in the home in the 1960s and living in Telford.

He said: “We will not tolerate it. We know that it has happened in the last 36 hours, we are dealing with it.”