POLICE LAST night raised the prospect of more bodies being discovered at a former children's home in Jersey after a search dog trained to find human remains reacted strongly after entering a hidden cellar.
The dog's "extremely strong reaction" was the same as when it helped find a child's remains buried under several inches of concrete at the building last weekend, the island's deputy chief police officer, Lenny Harper, said.
Police are searching the house as part of an investigation into allegations of child abuse by up to 160 former residents of the home stretching back to the 1960s, but focused on the 1970s and 1980s.
The underground room has been identified by many of the people who contacted police saying they were victims of child abuse, said Mr Harper.
There are also indications there may be a second bricked-up cellar.
Mr Harper said: "We have put the dog into a part of the cellar. We have an extremely strong reaction from the dog in one area. The reaction was evident. It was similar to the reaction when we found the partial remains."
He said an item was also found in the chamber fixed to the floor but would not say what it was.
Builders involved in the renovation of the former care home at Haut de la Garenne - now a youth hostel - in 2003 reported finding child-sized shackles and other evidence of torture.
As the police search continues at the home, victims have revealed their stories of alleged beatings and sex attacks. When the building was used as a care home, former residents claimed they were raped, drugged and flogged.
Peter Hannaford (59), a resident at the home until the age of 12, said some children were encouraged by staff to attack and sexually assault him every night.
A woman who declined to be named also said staff had drunken parties and selected weak children to abuse. She said she was locked in a tiny "punishment room" and was subjected to the most "cruel, sadistic and evil acts" and the most "serious forms of sexual abuse".