Jersey man for court on rape charges

Jersey police have charged a man with raping and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl 30 years ago.

Jersey police have charged a man with raping and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl 30 years ago.

Claude Donnelly (68) of St Brelade, Jersey, is accused of attacking the girl between 1971 and 1974 on the Channel Island.

He was also charged with gross indecency and will appear before magistrates in St Helier tomorrow.

One of Britain's biggest ever abuse investigations is under way on the island, focussing on the former children's home, Haut de la Garenne.

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Police have found bone fragments and bloody items in underground "punishment rooms" at the property.

Deputy Chief Officer Lenny Harper, who is heading the investigation, said Mr Donnelly is in no way connected to Haut de la Garenne but was arrested as part of the wider investigation into abuse on Jersey.

It is understood however that detectives have an arrest warrant for another man who is a former employee at the home.

More than 100 people claim they were abused since the 1960s at Haut de la Garenne, which closed in 1986.

On Friday, two anthropologists and two archaeologists are to start a detailed excavation of cellar rooms three and four, where bone fragments and teeth were found.

The bones have been delivered to the UK to ascertain their origin, and the teeth will follow this week.

Fragments of a child's skull were found in February buried under a stairwell.

Tests on the skull were unable to identify the child but revealed the bone was placed at that location no earlier than the 1920s.

Some of the victims claim they were kept in solitary confinement and attacked in secret underground chambers.

In four underground rooms, police have found a number of items, including shackles and a bath, which they say corroborate claims from victims.