Jersey home was studio for evil child-porn empire (30.03.08)

News of the World, 30th March 2008
by Philip Whiteside and Lucy Panton, Crime Editor

VILE pictures of babies being raped were taken for a child porn ring at the Jersey kids’ home of horror, police feared last night.Experts think the home is the source of many of the network’s 9,000 sick pictures, discovered in an infamous haul in Holland in the Nineties.It was dubbed the Zandvoort stash, after the town where it was found- but the studio was never uncovered.

Experts are now 90 per cent certain it was the baby unit at Haut de la Garenne’s Aviemore wing. Some of the victims in the black and white pictures were just 18 months old.

None has ever been traced.

A Belgium anti-paedophile group which uncovered the pictures in a computer shop has contacted Jersey police. Deputy Chief Officer Lenny Harper said: “We are looking at the claims and will follow up significant new lines of inquiry.”

Pictures of a second “punishment room” cellar were released this weekend. It is three times bigger than the first chamber but the ceiling is even lower, meaning children would have stooped. More than 200 people say they were abused or know victims. Around 40 people have been identified as potentially being involved in the abuse or covering it up.

The News of the World can also reveal that 121 sex offenders roam Jersey unsupervised as it has no sex offenders’ register. Their crimes range from paedophilia and rape to downloading child porn and cops say they may pose a risk. Politicians say they will make the register law this year.

• Haut de la Garenne
• Holland
• Jersey
• Zandvoort