9:02am UK, Friday May 16, 2008

Police investigating decades of child abuse at a former children's home on Jersey have found a sixth tooth in a secret underground chamber.

Investigators search cellar

Detectives leading the investigation at Haut de la Garenne, one of the biggest abuse inquiries in British history, also revealed they have found a few bone fragments.

The tooth is a child's but it is not known if the bones are human or animal, police said.

It follows the discovery of bone fragments and five teeth, thought to be from a child aged four or five, in the cellar on Monday.

Those remains are undergoing examinations including carbon dating and DNA tests in the UK.

Police in Jersey said they expected the results next week.

A spokeswoman said: "This afternoon the team discovered another child's tooth (the sixth found) in the vicinity of cellar three.

"A few bone fragments (not known yet whether they are human or animal) were also found this afternoon."

More than 100 people claim they were abused at the home with allegations dating back to the 1960s.

The case has seen all care centres on Jersey investigated. Police have said there are more than 40 suspects.

So far, only one man has been arrested.

Gordon Claude Wateridge is charged with three offences of indecent assault on girls under 16 between 1969 and 1979 when he was warder at the home.

The 76-year-old, originally from Croydon, Surrey, has appeared in court and his case was adjourned.

Haut de la Garenne was dubbed the "house of horrors" after a child's remains were found in February buried under a stairwell.

Since then scores of people have come forward claiming they were abused at the home and some talked of underground punishment rooms where they were drugged, raped and beaten.

Forensic teams uncovered a network of four secret underground chambers at the site where they found the teeth.

In the other chambers police also found shackles, a blood stained bath and the haunting message "I've been bad for years and years" scrawled on a wooden post.