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March 2, 2008
Picture: the Jersey 'child abuse cellar' uncovered by police
(From Paul Rogers/The Times)
The bath in the centre of this cellar room has been described by several abuse victims. On a wooden post someone has written: "I have been bad 4 years & years"
David Brown in Jersey
Police investigating a child abuse scandal in Jersey have uncovered the first chamber in a network of alleged “punishment rooms” where some former residents of a children’s home have told police they suffered physical and sexual brutality.
The 12ft-square room at Haut de la Garenne is dominated by a 5ft deep communal bath or animal trough which has been described by many of the victims of abuse from the 1960s to 1986. On a wooden post behind the bath someone has written in black marker: “I’ve been bad 4 years & years”.
Building debris from the conversion of the home into a youth hostel in 2003 litters the floor of the cellar. A pair of shackles found in the room has been removed as evidence.
In the ceiling is the remnant of an improvised trapdoor created so that the cellar complex could be discreetly accessed from the building’s south wing. Much of the ceiling has been removed by the police search team since the cellar was uncovered last week.
Later this week detectives hope to break through to an adjoining chamber which has a suspiciously bricked-up doorway leading from the first room.
The secret torture complex is now believed to contain a total of four chambers. Police believe the cellars were originally have been used to house pigs or other livestock.
Former residents have told detectives that the cellar complex, referred to as “Baintree”, had later been used to punish misbehaving children. Victims have described being lowered into a “deep dark pit” where they were left with other children in a large bath of cold water before being abused at the hands care workers and outsiders.
A similar-sized underground complex could also exist in the building’s north wing, close to where a piece of child’s skull was uncovered last month. Detectives are reviewing the discovery of other bones at the same spot in 2003 which were initially dismissed as coming from an animal.
They will also investigate an underground storage area close to the building’s swimming pool and two, three metre-deep pits in the courtyard. Areas used for detention cells in which former residents also recall being abused will be examined in the main building and the more modern Aviemore wing which accommodated babies and infants.
Investigations into claims of abuse at the home started in 2003 when a former resident of Haut de La Garenne was convicted of blackmailing a care worker by threatening to expose him as a paedophile. The investigation has been widened to include organised abuse at the Greenfield’s children’s home and the Sea Cadet force which used Haut de La Garenne.
Detectives confirmed today that the investigation has received reports of abuse committed in recent months.
A police spokesman said: “There was an offence committed late last year which is being dealt with. It is not related to offences committed at the home [Haur de la Garenne].”
A leading member of Jersey’s post-war political establishment was confirmed by police today as having been named as an abuser. Living members of the island’s establishment have also been identified as suspects but cannot be named for legal reasons.
Wilfred Krichefski, a senator in Jersey’s government and chair of several committees, allegedly regularly visited Haut de La Garenne to abuse boys un until his death in 1974.
One ex-resident has claimed he was repeatedly raped at the children’s home aged 12 by Mr Krichefski between 1962 and 1963.
The man, now aged in his late 50s and living in the West Midlands, said that every month he and another boy would be taken into a back room at the home and abused by two men.
The former resident said he would be woken by a care worker with the words “There is someone here to see you”. He was presented to his abuser with the words “Here’s a boy for you, sir.” The alleged victim man said: “That man raped me and did despicable acts. I know he is dead but people need to know what he was really like.” “He said: ’I’m going to teach you to be a good boy. You’ve been wicked and no one wants you. Your parents don’t want you - that’s why you’re here.’” The only person he told about the abuse was a psychiatrist on the island who warned that if he repeated the allegation he would be placed in a mental hospital.
Mr Krichefski ran a leading Jersey clothing store and was founding managing director of ITV’s Channel Television. He was awarded an OBE in 1958.
Lenny Harper, the deputy chief officer, said: “It is a name that we have been given and our investigation continues.
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Irish Catholic Church 'covered up' sickening catalogue of child abuse by paedophile priests
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:13 PM on 26th November 2009
The Catholic hierarchy in Ireland was granted immunity to cover up child sex abuse among paedophile priests in Dublin, a damning report revealed today.
Authorities enjoyed a cosy relationship with the Church and did not enforce the law as four archbishops, obsessed with secrecy and avoiding scandal, protected abusers and reputations at all costs.
Hundreds of crimes against defenceless children from the 1960s to the 1990s were not reported while gardai treated clergy as though they were above the law.
In a three-year inquiry, the Commission to Inquire into the Dublin Archdiocese uncovered a sickening tactic of 'don't ask, don't tell' throughout the Church.
'The Commission has no doubt that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up by the Archdiocese of Dublin and other Church authorities,' it said.
'The structures and rules of the Catholic Church facilitated that cover-up.
'The State authorities facilitated that cover-up by not fulfilling their responsibilities to ensure that the law was applied equally to all and allowing the Church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes.'
Four archbishops - John Charles McQuaid who died in 1973, Dermot Ryan who died in 1984, Kevin McNamara who died in 1987, and retired Cardinal Desmond Connell - did not hand over information on abusers.
The first files were handed over by the Cardinal in 1995 but even then he had records of complaints against at least 28 priests.
The primary loyalty of bishops and archbishops is to the Church, the report said.
Bishop James Kavanagh, Bishop Dermot O'Mahony, Bishop Laurence Forristal, Bishop Donal Murray and disgraced Bishop Brendan Comiskey, a reformed alcoholic who failed to control paedophile priests when in charge of the Ferns Diocese, all knew about child abuse for many years.
The inquiry, headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy, said the hierarchy cannot claim they did not know that child sex abuse was a crime.
Cardinal Connell was credited for instigating two secret canon law trials which took place over the 30-year period and led to two priests being defrocked.
Monsignor Gerard Sheehy, a powerful figure in the Catholic Archdiocese, one of the largest in Europe, fought to prevent the internal prosecutions.
Religious orders, for example the Columbans, had clear knowledge of complaints dating back to the early 1970s.
Parts of the 700-page report have been censored to prevent pending or potential prosecutions of abusers being prejudiced with references to two priests, and one of the cleric's brothers, removed.
While the Dublin Archdiocese inquiry found no evidence of a paedophile ring, some of the most shocking findings included:
* One priest admitted sexually abusing more than 100 children;
* Another accepted he abused on a fortnightly basis during his 25-year ministry;
* One complaint was made against a priest who later admitted abusing at least six other children;
* It took gardai 20 years to decide on a prosecution of one priest.
The inquiry said it uncovered inappropriate contacts between authorities and the Archdiocese.
Allegations were made against one priest, known as Fr Edmondus, but Garda Commissioner Daniel Costigan handed the case to Archbishop McQuaid and took no other action.
The inquiry also warned of inappropriate relations between some senior gardai and priests in two other cases.
'A number of very senior members of the gardai, including the Commissioner (Costigan) in 1960, clearly regarded priests as being outside their remit,' the report said.
'There are some examples of gardai actually reporting complaints to the Archdiocese instead of investigating them.
'It is fortunate that some junior members of the force did not take the same view.'
The inquiry, which was looking at a sample of 46 priests dating back to 1975 but took its review back as far as the 1940s, outlined an insurance scheme for victims set up by the Archdiocese in 1987.
Church files show at the time Archbishops McNamara, Ryan and McQuaid had, between them, information on complaints against at least 17 priests.
The Commission said it proved the hierarchy knew the sex abuse scandals would cost the Church dearly.
'The taking out of insurance was proving knowledge of child sex abuse as a major cost to the Archdiocese and is inconsistent with the view that archdiocesan officials were still 'on a learning curve' at a much later date, or were lacking in an appreciation of the phenomenon of clerical child sex abuse,' it said.
The Archdiocese was pre-occupied until the mid-1990s with maintaining secrecy, avoiding scandal, protecting the reputation of the Church and preservation of assets.
All other concerns, including the damage done to young victims, came second, the report said.
'The welfare of the children, which should have been the first priority, was not even a factor to be considered in the early days,' the Commission said.