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| Jail for Jersey home sex attacker | Jail for Jersey home sex attacker |
| (21 minutes later) | |
| A former worker at a Jersey children's home has been jailed for two years after being convicted of sex attacks on teenage girls in the 1970s. | A former worker at a Jersey children's home has been jailed for two years after being convicted of sex attacks on teenage girls in the 1970s. |
| Gordon Wateridge who worked at the Haut de la Garenne home, had earlier been found guilty of eight counts of indecent assault against three girls. | Gordon Wateridge who worked at the Haut de la Garenne home, had earlier been found guilty of eight counts of indecent assault against three girls. |
| The 78-year-old, who lives in the parish of St Clement, was sentenced at Jersey Royal Court. | The 78-year-old, who lives in the parish of St Clement, was sentenced at Jersey Royal Court. |
| He was also found guilty of assaulting a teenage boy. | |
| Wateridge, who was born in Croydon, south London, was the first person charged in connection with an inquiry into historical abuse at the site, where he worked as a house parent. | |
| The court heard how children sent to Haut de la Garenne were vulnerable and suffered from a variety of problems. | |
| The trial had heard Wateridge would grope girls' breasts, hug the teenagers inappropriately and kiss them on the neck. | |
| Claims discredited | |
| Passing sentence, Judge Christopher Pitchers said: "What he did was rightly described in the trial as sexual bullying." | |
| He said the acts carried out by Wateridge against the girls were at the "lower end" of the sentencing guidelines. | |
| They were entitled to expect care, love and kindness but in fact they received sexual bullying and unkindness Judge Christopher Pitchers | |
| But he added: "There is no such thing as a trivial indecent assault of child. | |
| "They were vulnerable because they were children and because they were placed in the home without the support of a loving family. | |
| "They were entitled to expect care, love and kindness but in fact they received sexual bullying and unkindness." | |
| Wateridge was arrested early last year. He worked at the home between 1970 and 1974 and lived in a flat on the premises with his wife and two children. | |
| There had earlier been suggestions of murders taking place at the home in Jersey, and following extensive searches police initially claimed to have found traces of blood, a fragment of a child's skull and secret underground "dungeons". | |
| But in November 2008, these claims were discredited. Senior officers admitted there was no evidence of any murders and said "misleading" information had been wrongly made public. |