Former Jersey home warden appears in court
Tuesday, 05 Aug 2008 20:01
Former warden at Haut de la Garenne care home appears in court
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A former warden at the Haut de la Garenne children's home has appeared in court today charged with sexual assault.
Gordon Claude Wateridge faces 17 charges - 16 of indecent assault and one of assault – in relation to the ongoing investigation into historic abuse on Jersey.
The 76-year-old, from St Clement, Jersey, is accused of sexually abusing three girls in the 1960s and 70s.
He was the first person to be charged in connection with the historical abuse investigation at Haut de la Garenne.
He has now been committed to Jersey's royal court but has not yet entered a plea to the charges he faces.
Forensic investigators are still examining the former care home, which was thrust into the limelight of the international media when fragments of what was believed to be a child's skull were found there earlier this year.
Since then 65 teeth have been found in the home's cellars, although the skull fragments have yet to be verified as belonging to a child.
Six people have been arrested in connection with the police's historical abuse inquiry, with Mr Wateridge among three people charged.