Jun 22, 2009, 16:42 GMT
London - A former cleaner at a childrens' home in Jersey where large-scale abuse is alleged to have taken place was Monday given a two-year suspended sentence for abusing boys under the age of 10.
Michael Aubin, 46, who lived at the home in the 1970s, is the first person to be sentenced in connection with the long-running scandal at the Haut de la Garenne home on the island of Jersey in the English Channel.
The former cleaner, who claims he was abused himself at the home, was sentenced to two years' probation at Jersey's Royal Court for two counts of gross indecency and two of indecent assault on children under 10.
Aubin pleaded guilty to the charges at a hearing in May. He is the first person to be convicted following a wide-ranging police investigation into historic child abuse on the island.
The court heard that Aubin, who was 14 when he abused his two victims, had been 'sodomised' himself at the home to which he had been admitted at the age of three due to 'lack of parental care.'
In his teenage years, he returned to the home on holidays when the offending took place, the prosecution said. It described Aubin as a homosexual who had been abused as a child and suffered serious behavioural problems later.
Police amassed a list of 40 suspects in their marathon investigations after more than 100 people came forward claiming they were sexually and physically abused there from the 1960s onwards.
At least two other people have been charged in connection with the investigation.
But the political authorities on the island have insisted there is nothing to the allegations and accused the police of being over-zealous.
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