Woman tells of years of sexual abuse at Jersey children's home

From The Times
August 11, 2009
Steve Bird


A woman who says she was the victim of a “persistent sexual bully” broke down in court yesterday as she told how she suffered years of abuse at a Jersey children’s home.

The 53-year-old woman said that Gordon Wateridge, a house parent at the Haut de la Garenne home, groped girls’ breasts, forced his hands into one child’s underwear and kissed girls on the neck.

The Jersey Royal Court was told that the woman, who cannot be named, was abused by Mr Wateridge from 1970 to 1974 at the home, which is at the centre of a multimillion-pound historic child abuse inquiry. It was claimed that the attacks led children to nicknamed Mr Wateridge, now 78, “The Perv”.

The woman said she was taken into the home as a teenager after her father died unexpectedly, leaving her mother unable to cope. She said that Mr Wateridge would regularly lean out and grab her or other girls as they walked past the home’s snooker table; he would then push her on to the table and grope her breasts and inner thighs.She said: “I remember lying on my back with my feet on the floor, he was pretending to tickle me but from my point of view he was having a good feel.

“His hands would be moving up and down the inside of my leg.”

Asked how these encounters made her feel, the woman replied: “It wasn’t right — how would you feel? I was a girl of 13 or 14, he was a big man, I would be shouting to stop.”

She added: “I found him creepy — he gave me the creeps, he was smarmy.” Asked why she had not told anyone about the abuse, she replied: “Because no one would have listened.”

Another witness, also 53, said Mr Wateridge would smack bottoms and give bear hugs.

A man who stayed at the home as a teenager recounted how he was thrown to the ground by Wateridge after he told him to leave his sister alone. He told the court:: “He grabbed my hair and said, ’Is there a problem, boy?’ I said, ’no’, and he pushed me to the floor.”

Mr Wateridge denies 19 counts of indecent assault and one of incitement to indecent assault relating to five victims between 1970 and 1974. Mr Wateridge, originally from Croydon, South London, and who now lives in the Jersey parish of St Clement, also denies a single charge of assault involving a sixth victim.

Stephen Baker, for the prosecution, said Mr Wateridge, then in his 40s, abused his responsibility to look after the youngsters, who were sent to the home because they were vulnerable.

“He was a bully and he used his position of authority to touch girls in his care in a sexual fashion.

“As you hear the evidence you may conclude that he was a persistent sexual bully, frequently touching young teenage girls in a sexual manner.”

Mr Baker said Mr Wateridge, who arrived at court hiding his face under a coat, would use his strength and size to overpower the girls by giving them inappropriate bear hugs.

The trial continues.
Woman tells of years of sexual abuse at Jersey children's home