Former Jersey care worker jailed for sex attacks

A former care worker at a Jersey children's home has been jailed for two years after being found guilty of a series of sex attacks on teenage girls.

Gordon Wateridge was found guilty of repeatedly assaulting the girls at the Haut de la Garenne home during the 1970s.

During his trial last month, the 78-year-old was described as a 'persistent sexual bully'.

He was eventually found guilty of eight charges of indecent assault and one charge of assault following the trial at Jersey's royal court.

On Monday, he was sentenced to 21 months for each of the indecent assault charges, to run concurrently, and for three months, consecutively, for an assault on a teenage boy.

Wateridge was the first person to be charged in connection with the historic abuse investigation on Jersey.

Passing sentence, Judge Christopher Pitchers, said: 'What he did was rightly described in the trial as sexual bullying.

'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.'