Jersey children's home doubts

A Sheffield professor thinks that bones found at a former Jersey children’s home may not even be those of a human, despite police saying they are from a child’s skull.

Prof essor Andrew Chamberlain, from the Department of Archaeology, doubts police claims that bone fragments discovered at Haute de la Garenne are from a child who died 50 years ago.

He examined bone fragments dug up from the site and told police he could not identify them as human. Later on they were proved to be between 300-400 years old.

However, the police officer in charge of the investigation wrote in an email to Jersey officials that tests showed the skull of a child had been found and that they died in the 1950s or later.

Professor Chamberlain said: "The fragments were too small to determine what species they were. The two most likely to be human I later found from carbon dating were 300 or 400 years old. I didn’t comment on how old they were in my report to the police.

"The bones were well preserved, and perhaps because they had reports of children going missing they thought the fragments were more recent. But I don’t know why they assumed this."

A University of Sheffield graduate working as a forensic anthropologist at the site suggested Professor Chamberlain examined the bone fragments as she knew he had special microscopic techniques.

This misinterpretation of his findings had a major effect on the ongoing investigation into child abuse and murder at the former children’s home.

The £4.5million investigation at Haute de la Garenne started two years ago, and searching of the former home began in February this year.

Victoria Hawkins