Hundreds join in rally for Jersey care home 'victims'

Several hundred people today gathered at a rally to support alleged victims of child abuse at a former Jersey care home.

A minute’s silence was held to remember those who suffered during decades at Haut de la Garenne.

Police investigating the former home have said more than 160 people claim they were physically and sexually abused there from the 1960s onwards.

Several former residents of the home attended the rally saying it was time for political action to be taken to ensure such abuse never happened again.

Giffard Oubin, now 73, told how he was beaten and bullied by the older boys at the home during the 1940s.

He said: “They used to wrap wires round our legs and attach them to a generator and give us electric shocks. We were given numbers instead of names and if we got ill we were sent to the boot room and beaten.”

He said the blocked off chambers that the police are now excavating were unknown to the boys at the home during his time there but that the abuse was not.