Haut de la Garenne

Haut de la Garenne is a youth hostel in Saint Martin, Jersey, in the Channel Islands [ [http://www.yha.org.uk/find-accommodation/south-west-england/hostels/jersey/index.aspx YHA website] ] cite web
title = Hostel getting association help
publisher = bbc.co.uk
date = 18 March 2004
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/jersey/3522956.stm
accessdate = 2008-02-23] , temporarily closed as of 2008 during an investigation into cases of child abuse from when the building was a children's home.

History

Haut de la Garenne began in 1867 as an industrial school for "young people of the lower classes of society and neglected children".cite web
title = Child's body found at care home
publisher = bbc.co.uk
date = 23 February 2008
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/jersey/7260625.stm
accessdate = 2008-02-24] The construction of the school was funded by the Assembly of Governor, Bailiff and Jurats in order to house and educate boys formerly looked after at the General Hospital in Saint Helier. ["Nouvelle Chronique de Jersey" 26 June 1867] On 22 June 1867, 45 boys were transferred by coach to the new institution, overseen by Jurats Neel and Aubin, Charles Simon, director of the hospital, and Mr. Higginbottom, master of the new school. ["Chronique de Jersey" 26 June 1867]

By 1900 it had become the Jersey Home for Boys and continued as a children's home for many years. In 1921 the States of Jersey took over the buildings and most of the powers of the Assembly of Governor, Bailiff and Jurats. [cite web
url= http://www.jerseylaw.je/Law/display.aspx?url=lawsinforce%5chtm%5cLawFiles%5c1900-1949%2fJersey_Law_04-1921.htm
title= Loi (1921) sur l’Assemblée des Gouverneur, Bailli et Jurés (Transfert de Pouvoirs, etc.)
accessdate= 2008-03-03
publisher= Jersey Legal Information Board] During the German Occupation during the Second World War, the German military used the building as a signal station. Following the Liberation of 1945, the building continued as a children's home. On 17 March 1960 the States adopted an act changing the name of the institution to Haut de la Garenne. [ [http://www.jerseylaw.je/Law/display.aspx?url=lawsinforce%5chtm%5cROFiles%5cR%26O4000-4999%2fJersey_R_%26_O_4127.htm HAUT DE LA GARENNE ACT 1960] ] Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the home received both boys and girls. After the home closed in 1986, the building was used to portray a police station in the TV detective series "Bergerac".cite web
last = Kershaw
first = Alison
title = Child's remains found at former care home
publisher = independent.co.uk
date = 23 February 2008
url = http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/childs-remains-found-at-former-care-home-786401.html?r=RSS
accessdate = 2008-02-24] The Public Works Committee took over the building from the Education Committee in 1986. The building was put to a number of temporary uses while a permanent solution to using the building was considered. It was considered as a potential site for the Territorial Army unit. St. Michael's Preparatory School leased a dormitory block for a time, and the headmaster proposed leasing the whole site for educational and sporting purposes. In 1989 the dormitory wing was converted for use by the Education Committee as temporary respite care for children with special education needs."The house is not a home - but what will they do with Haut de la Garenne?", Jersey Evening Post, 8 March 1990] However the Public Works Committee decided in favour of selling the property in order to purchase a commercial site in Saint Helier for development as housing, or of agreeing a land swap with a hotel in Saint Helier whereby the hotel would develop Haut de la Garenne as a luxury hotel and thereby free the urban hotel site for housing development. [Jersey Evening Post, 29 June 1989] The proposal for a luxury hotel development spurred parishioners of Saint Martin to call a Parish Assembly by means of a requête. This Assembly, held in August 1989, voted to oppose a hotel development at Haut de la Garenne, but indicated that a proposal for a sheltered housing development might be acceptable.

On 8 December 1998 the States voted to establish a trust to manage and operate Haut de la Garenne as a residential centre and the building was used for temporary accommodation for visiting groups of musicians and sportspeople, especially during festivals. On 22 October 2002 the States adopted a "Law granting an Act of Incorporation to the Association called "The Haut de la Garenne Trust". [http://www.jerseylaw.je/Law/display.aspx?url=lawsinforce/htm/LawFiles/2003/L-01-2003.htm Law granting an Act of Incorporation to the Association called "The Haut de la Garenne Trust"] The States spent £2.25m in 2003 to convert the building into a youth hostel, part of the International Youth Hostel Federation. The building also receives occasional conferences. [Jersey Evening Post 25 February 2008]

Child abuse investigation

The hostel was closed in February 2008 when police moved in as part of an investigation into historic child abuse.

A wide-ranging government investigation into child abuse had begun in 2006, and escalated into a States of Jersey Police investigation in 2007 during which witness evidence repeatedly indicated Haut de la Garenne, which housed up to 60 children at any one time, [cite news
title = Jersey child abuse probe finds suspect sites
publisher = CNN
date = 3 March 2008
url = http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/03/jersey.abuse/index.html] to be one of the places where abuse took place.

There was widespread media coverage as forensic teams conducted searches in the building between the end of February 2008 and July 2008 [http://www.thisisjersey.com/2008/07/09/the-work-is-over-at-haut-de-la-garenne/] . The Youth Hostels Association has announced that Haut de la Garenne will remain closed until March 2009. [cite news
title = Youth Hostel 'closing for a year'
publisher = bbc.co.uk
date = 21 March 2008
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/jersey/7308587.stm]

An initial finding of a fragment of what was believed to be a child's skull was widely publicised, but forensic tests subsequently determined that it was not bone [ [http://thisisjersey.com/news/shownewsarticle.pl?ArticleID=101244 "Skull fragment "may be red herring"] , Jersey Evening Post 3 March 2008] .

On Friday 7 March evidence in the form of blood spots was identified. The samples were discovered on a concrete bath in the Haut de la Garenne cellar. cite news
title = More bones found at children's home
publisher = msn.com
date = 9 March 2008
url = http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=7747527
accessdate = 2008-03-10] .

On Wednesday 16 April it was announced that the police were excavating two pits that had been dug in the grounds of the home. A man had contacted them stating that he had been asked to dig the pits in the 1970s or 1980s but had not been told why. Police have found lime in one otherwise empty pit, but "can think of no reason why it would have been created".

By the end of the excavations and investigations at Haut de la Garenne in July 2008 [http://www.thisisjersey.com/2008/07/09/the-work-is-over-at-haut-de-la-garenne/] , police had sifted over 150 tonnes of earth and had identified 65 teeth (all believed to be the milk teeth of children [http://www.jersey.police.uk/news/2008/july/310708.html] ) and 100 and 150 tiny bone fragments [http://www.thisisjersey.com/2008/07/31/bones-may-go-back-to-1650/] . Bone fragments had been sent to the United Kingdom for testing.

Police said that evidence was found which "substantially corroborate" accounts of abuse at the home, but a murder inquiry was unlikely because the remains could not be accurately dated. The remains are reported to be of at least five children, and may date to between 1650 and 1960 [http://www.thisisjersey.com/2008/07/31/bones-may-go-back-to-1650/] . The officer in charge of the investigation stated that radiocarbon dating had yielded "a probability the person had died in 1650, but also a smaller probability they had died in 1960" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7535083.stm] .

Jersey Police have so far recorded claims of abuse from 100 people.cite news
title = Police probe pits at Jersey home
publisher = bbc.co.uk
date = 16 April 2008
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7350149.stm] The police are investigating 18 key suspects in the wider investigation [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7534350.stm] . Arrests and charges have been made [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7529654.stm] ] and as of September 2008 the investigation continues. [http://www.jersey.police.uk/news/2008/september/160908.html]

Criticisms of the investigation

There have been criticisms of the conduct of the investigation at Haut de la Garenne, both in Jersey and elsewhere. The former minister for health and social services, Senator Stuart Syvret, said that he had been made aware in early 2007 of abuse at the home and had called for an independent enquiry. Frank Walker, the Chief Minister, accused him of damaging Jersey's reputation by speaking to the media [cite news
last = Rayner
first = Gordon
title = Jersey Chief Minister confronts abuse crisis
publisher = The Daily Telegraph
date = 26 February 2008
url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/26/njersey126.xml] , but stated that he had "every confidence that the criminal investigations and any subsequent prosecutions will be, and will be seen to be, thorough and pursued with the utmost rigour and professionalism" [http://www.gov.je/ChiefMinister/CMSupportsJudiciary.htm] and that "there is no hiding place in Jersey for anyone who abused children or, who in any way may have colluded with that abuse and no stone will be left unturned to bring them to justice." [http://www.gov.je/ChiefMinister/StatementontheHistoricChildAbuse.htm]

It was suggested that some finds may actually be props from the TV series Bergerac. [cite news
title = Jersey 'graves' could just be TV props from Bergerac
publisher = The Times
date = 4 March 2008
url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3483714.ece ]

The Attorney General, who has the responsibility for prosecutions, stated that "justice should be done" in spite of delays in the investigation [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7536536.stm] . United Kingdom MP John Hemming said that he thought that there was no doubt that there were efforts to cover up. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7534350.stm] He and Senator Syvret are reported on 1 August 2008 to have begun legal action against UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw over the prosecution of historic child abuse cases [http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7536000/7536679.stm] . They call for UK government intervention and assurance that cases are heard outside Jersey, on the grounds that Jersey's legal system cannot guarantee a fair trial of an inquiry of this scale.

Toponymy

"Haut de la Garenne" is French for "top of the warren". The building is situated on Mont de la Garenne, a hill overlooking Mont Orgueil where rabbits were hunted. This "varenne" of the King was a perquisite of the Crown. ["Jersey Place Names", Société Jersiaise 1986 ISBN 0901897175]

References

External links

* [http://www.yha.org.uk/find-accommodation/south-west-england/hostels/jersey/index.aspx YHA UK Page]