Bones at abuse home 'may mean murder'

DETECTIVES investigating allegations of abuse at a former Jersey children's home said yesterday bone fragments found in a cellar "could suggest" homicide.

The remains were found alongside children's teeth in one of the underground chambers at the Haut de la Garenne home.

Deputy chief officer Lenny Harper said a total of 30 bone fragments and seven teeth had been found in one of the cellars at Haut de la Garenne.

He added that it could suggest that a body or bodies had been cremated in a fireplace at the former children's home. Some of the bones had been cut, he said.

Haut de la Garenne became the centre of an historic abuse inquiry in February after the discovery of what was thought at the time to be part of a child's skull. Following the find, scores of people came forward claiming they were abused at the home. Some have talked of underground punishment rooms where they were drugged, raped and beaten.

Forensic teams subsequently uncovered a network of four secret underground chambers at the site where they found the teeth and bone fragments.

In other chambers, officers found shackles, a blood-stained bath and the haunting message: "I've been bad for years and years" scrawled on a post.