Past coming back to haunt Jersey.

[Norton]

JERSEY, Channel Islands (CNN) -- Jersey has known trauma before. For five years during World War II, the Nazi flag flew over this British isle.


Police guard the building which used to be the Haut de la Garenne children's home.

It was a time of jackboots, strict orders and tough punishments. Many here still talk about the occupation. Fred Carpenter lived through it.
And he did it harder than most, as a resident of the children's home that later became known as Haut de la Garenne, which is now at the center of an investigation into claims of child killing and abuse spanning decades.
"It was like a horror camp, what happened during the war," Carpenter told CNN. "After the war, the state's doctor examined all the boys, and I was so undernourished, they only gave me two months to be alive."
The 76-year-old tells stories of terrible beatings in the home, of young boys disappearing without explanation.
Today, he says: "I always knew it would take a dead body for people to go looking for the secrets in that building."
On Saturday, police found the remains of a child at Haut de la Garenne. They suspect that there could be more.
Jersey is now facing its dark side.
More than 150 residents have told police that they were abused in the island's institutions.
Every day, a growing number of journalists passes on to the world new stories of sexual and physical suffering.
Some people on Jersey are now sharing secrets they've been carrying for years.
It's enough to drive locals to prayer. At a special church service, they reflected on how a child in the community's care could just disappear unnoticed.
"We're thinking about these children who didn't have anybody to miss them," resident Peggy Stevens said. "And we're here to pray for them."
Others are fighting over them. Jersey's politicians are divided over how this was allowed to happen -- and it's getting ugly.
Island Senator Stuart Syvret believes that some of his colleagues are more worried about the island's international reputation as a friendly tourist spot and offshore tax haven, something the government's chief minister denies.
Syvret blames what he calls a culture of covering up. But despite the large number of allegations and their long history, he insists that there's nothing sinister to the people of Jersey.
"The community is a good community. The people here are ordinary, decent people like everywhere else," Syvret said. "The failure here is in the island's government in its system of administration."
The island's government has backed the police in efforts to find out how many child abusers could still be living among the people of Jersey.
The results are already proving traumatic. But Chief Police Officer Graham Power sees their work as a necessary, bitter medicine.
He said: "This will be a hard time for Jersey, but when we get it through to the finish, we'll be a better society because of it."

'Horror' of children's home haunts island - CNN.com

[sabang]

Yeh, watch this space. Skeletons in closets.

[Norton]

Yeh, watch this space. Skeletons in closets.

News reports say it will a few weeks before the excavation is completed but it does look like there will be some startling finds.

[November Rain]

OK, not sure what this is about. Is this about this one children's home & the administration at one particular time, or is it about Jersey as a whole, or is it about some wartime atrocity? Plenty of emotive language but where are the facts?

I hate this sort of journalism. If certain members of staff/administration were guilty of child abuse - accuse them. Don't write a piece full of innuendo, insinuating that the entire island is guilty of harbouring child abusers. There were similar cases in Australia in certain religious orphanages & I don't remember anyone blaming the towns where the orphanages were located. This isn't people dismissing the smell of burning human flesh as nothing, as in Nazi Germany. Child abuse when contained, can be very difficult to detect.

[Norton]

OK, not sure what this is about.

Wasn't exactly sure myself. I actually saw it this morning on CNN and found this article on google. From the pictures on CNN, it seems the allegations of child abuse and torture took place several years ago when the Nazis occupied Jersey as the bricked in rooms were clearly very old and from that period. However, implications are several residents are aware of the history of the place and have kept silent until recently. The significance I take from this is the "cover up" aspect but to soon to tell what was covered up.

It is only the one place. Haut de la Garenne children's home.

[PlanK]

Why would the local residents cover this up?
If it was another Nazi war crime I'm sure it would have been seized upon as damning evidence and useful for post-war propaganda. Unless some of the locals were also in on the whole thing.

[DrB0b]

They're not talking about the Nazi period, they're talking about the '60s, 70s, and 80s, nor does it appear to be confined to one home. It all looks pretty horrible. Unspeakable if true.


Papers name former Senator in abuse case
ALLEGATIONS that one of Jersey’s top politicians of the 1960s raped children at Haut de la Garenne have been made in the national newspapers.

Abuse claims backed by cellar discoveries
PICTURES of the bricked-up cellar at the centre of the Haut de la Garenne child abuse inquiry have been released.

Police probe care home blackmail allegations
POLICE have confirmed that are investigating ‘serious’ blackmail allegations related to the Haut de la Garenne child abuse inquiry.

Two in talks with UK Ministry of Justice
STATES chief executive Bill Ogley and Attorney General William Bailhache were in London on Friday for meetings with the UK Ministry of Justice about the Haut de la Garenne investigation.

Senator revives another past abuse case
A REPORT claiming that orphans were savagely beaten and abused at another States care home was handed to the world’s media at the weekend.

Home staff ‘ran regime of cruelty and terror’
A LOCAL woman who worked at Haut de la Garenne says that staff ran a regime of cruelty and terror.

Army to search Jersey care home

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

A specialist military team has been called in to search for human remains at the former Jersey care home at the centre of an child abuse investigation. Police say the team will use hi-tech radar equipment to help forensic officers who found part of a child's skull at Haut de la Garenne.
The care home is being searched after more than 160 people claimed they were sexually and physically abused.
Some other bones have been found but so far none have proved to be human.
'Sense of sadness'
Journalists will not be allowed to film or photograph the six-man squad due to the "highly sensitive nature" of their equipment.
An automatic sieving machine is also due to arrive to assist the forensic staff with dealing with the excavated material.
Whatever has to come out must come out. There is a desire for absolute transparency


The Very Rev Bob Key, Dean of Jersey


The same team was used in the wake of the floods that struck the Cornish village of Boscastle, when it was brought in to search for people who could have been buried in mud slides.
Meanwhile a Jersey churchman has spoken of "an overwhelming sense of sadness" as the 12-month investigation continues.
The Very Rev Bob Key told the BBC that there was a feeling in Jersey that the abuse inquiry needed to be undertaken with "great urgency."

He said: "Everyone is committed to rooting out whatever malignancy that was in there in the past. Whatever has to come out must come out. There is a desire for absolute transparency."

Holiday ads pulled
In the meantime, all advertisements for holidays on the island have been withdrawn from newspapers and television advertising.
Jersey Tourism acknowledged it was a risky move but said it did not want adverts appearing alongside news bulletins or stories about the inquiry.
On Monday, more items were removed from Haut de la Garenne and sent away for examination.
Police are investigating the claims of alleged victims who say they were abused at the home in St Martin in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Child's skull
Excavation work has been ongoing since the child's skull was unearthed under a floor in a stairwell at the home on 23 February.
Police have so far not ruled out the possibility that that the skull may pre-date the period under investigation and that the person may not have died unlawfully.
The search has been extended to the building's cellar and grounds. Police also suspect there may be four bricked-up chambers in the cellar.

Deputy Chief Officer Lenny Harper, of Jersey Police, said his team had so far uncovered a "fair number" of bones.
He said: "We've identified the vast majority of these as being animal. There are one or two that are outstanding and we have to maybe have a closer look at them, but nothing that the anthropologist has identified as being human."
A dozen new detectives from the UK mainland have joined the inquiry; extra technical assistance provided and more incident room staff deployed.

The Howard League for Penal Reform has said it will be sending a review team to Jersey at the end of March to examine issues around the treatment of children in care in Jersey.

So far experts excavating the site have uncovered a set of shackles and a shallow bath. The shackles had been found on the floor but may once have been fastened to the wall.

Police have said that the bath and shackles corroborate some of the allegations made by alleged victims.
BBC NEWS | Europe | Jersey | Army to search Jersey care home

[Norton]

^^Thanks. Sheds much more light on the issue.

[chinthee]

Well, I'll tell you I know a lot about Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Mann, Caymans, Belize, Mariannas, and lots of other places like this, but mostly in association with banking secrecy, not pedo secrecy. That's disgusting and should be disclosed it it's true with this place.

[Texpat]

Plenty of emotive language but where are the facts? I hate this sort of journalism. If certain members were guilty - accuse them. Don't write a piece full of innuendo, insinuating that the entire island is guilty of harbouring child abusers.

Oh?

Please skip over to the Okinawa Marine Rape case if you want to see some real burned-on-the-cross justice.

And this is AFTER charges against the accused have been dropped/dismissed!

[November Rain]

^ I thought a guy (Tyrone something) was accused in that case. And yes, I know the charges have been dropped.

No-one actually accused yet, here, but the whole island is covering up abuse & worse...

[jizzybloke]

One of the tabloids in UK had a photo of Jimmy Saville taken with a bunch of the kids outside the place but he denied any knowlege of ever being there?!

[mackayae]

Is Jersey a part of the UK?

[Norton]

More bones found in Jersey probe

Cellars at Haut de la Garenne are being examined by forensic experts

Tests are being carried out on more bones found at the former children's home at the centre of a major child abuse investigation in Jersey. Police say the remains, discovered by forensic archaeologists at Haut de la Garenne, could turn out to be animal.
It comes as police say they are poised to make as many as three arrests in the case, either in Jersey or the UK.
They say 100 people claim to have been abused at Haut de la Garenne, where a child's remains were found in February.
Police spokewoman Louise Nibbs said the bones, recovered during searches of the cellar and a field behind the building, were "quite likely" to turn out to be from cattle.
'Graphic account'
A police team is investigating claims of abuse at the home stretching back decades after dozens of people came forward claiming to be victims.
Claims of abuse at the home over 30 years are being investigated


Jersey's Deputy Chief Police Officer, Lenny Harper, has said he is concerned by one particular account of an incident in the 1970s, during which is it feared a child may have died.
He told reporters: "We have a particularly graphic account of an incident which still causes us concern.

"We can't say a person definitely died but if you look at it you have to think there is a possibility that the person died - that, followed by the fact that this person was never seen again."
He said police had also received accounts of children being forced to watch other children being abused and were looking into claims of abuse taking place during day trips.

Second cellar
The police search at Haut de la Garenne is now in its third week.

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.
The police investigation, which began covertly in 2006, led to the discovery of part of a child's skull last month in a stairwell at the back of the building.
The remains are thought to date from the early 1980s. Police have not said whether they are male or female.
Some 25 people are suspected of having taken part in sexual and physical assaults at the home dating back to the 1960s.
Investigators say there are more than 40 suspects in the inquiry overall and 262 more phone calls relating to allegations of abuse are still being processed.
The children's home closed in 1986 and was later converted into a youth hostel.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Jersey | More bones found in Jersey probe

[kingwilly]