This Is Guernsey

Pete Carre, who as a teenager in the 60s spent two years at former children’s home Haut de la Garenne, said the reports of abuse paint a vastly different picture to his experience of the staff and facility. (Picture by John O’Neill, 0543454)

A MAN who lived at the former children’s home at the centre of Jersey’s abuse investigation has told of his shock at the allegations.

Pete Carre, who lived at Haut de la Garenne from 1963 to 1965, claimed no abuse had taken place during his time at the home.

Born in Guernsey, Mr Carre was moved to the home at the age of 15, returning to Guernsey two years later.  ‘The home that is being described in the media sounds like a completely different place to the one that I lived at,’ he said.
‘If kids had been abused when I was there someone would have noticed it.

‘We all ate together. We all went to school together where we had communal showers, so we would have noticed if someone had been physically abused.’

The 57-year-old said his best friend had also lived at the home from 1957 to 1966.

‘He phoned me when the news of the investigation broke and said he couldn’t believe it,’ Mr Carre said.

‘If we had been kids, at say six or seven years old, then we might not have seen it but we weren’t young kids.

‘At our age we would have noticed.’

Forensic scientists continued to search through the bricked-up cellar yesterday and Mr Carre said he thought that that area had been open when he was there, although he could not be certain.

‘It looks as if the area they are digging up at the moment is where the well used to be,’ he said.

‘If any bodies were disposed of, I guess that’s where they would have thrown them.

‘Obviously, something has happened there.

‘But it definitely didn’t happen while I was there, I’m sure of that.’

Mr Carre said that he felt he had to speak out in support of the staff who worked at the home while he lived there.

‘There are so many negative stories coming out, but no one has come out and defended the place,’ he said.

‘The house parents we had could not be faulted. All of them had families and they treated us as a big family.

‘We all looked after each other, that’s how I know that someone would have noticed if kids were being abused.’

However, Mr Carre admitted that there were several ‘friendly’ men who often hung around the home.

‘Everyone knew there were problems,’ he said.

‘We had been warned about certain people who used to come around. We were all aware of the ones we had to avoid and everyone did.

‘And those people were never left alone with any child.’

He added that punishment for bad behaviour was always fair.

‘We got up to the odd prank which warranted punishment but I think my mate had the cane once in all that time,’ he said.

‘The usual punishment would be courtyard duty, instead of being allowed to go fishing on a Saturday morning.’

Article posted on 1st March, 2008 - 9.37am