A sniffer dog has indicated that there may be human remains in a secret underground chamber beneath a former children’s home in Jersey.

Eddie, one of Britain’s most highly specialised police dogs, gave a “positive response” similar to his reaction before the discovery of a child’s skull in another part of the building last Saturday.

Chief Officer Graham Power, Jersey’s senior police officer, said that former residents of the Haut de la Garenne home in the east of the island had described being locked in a “deep, dark place from where they were brought out from time to time for the purposes of abuse”.

Police broke through a concrete floor to access the 12ft by 12ft chamber, where there was a “household object”, believed to be a bath, which corroborated victims’ accounts. Behind the debris-filled chamber is another bricked-up room of about the same size which they have yet to access.

Lenny Harper, the deputy chief officer, who is leading the inquiry into decades of sexual and physical abuse at the home, said that a forensic archaeologist would try today to locate whatever excited the dog.

He said: “I can’t emphasise enough how difficult conditions are down there. It is dark and filled with debris which we will have to clear. I am convinced there is something there but it could have an innocent explanation.”

Mr Harper added: “We found a significant item in the cellar which corroborated evidence from victims of alleged abuse. It is a household item which is fixed to the ground and did play a part in some of the allegations of abuse. It was something witnesses said would be in the room if we looked. The sniffer dog was barking at this specific area and it will need thorough examination.”

Mr Power added: “Children told of being kept in some deep, dark place and being brought out from time to time for the purposes of abuse.We don’t have anybody who saw a murder and we don’t have evidence of concealed bodies. We have allegations of abuse against boys and girls.”

Police are preparing to release a list of former residents whom they have been unable to trace. Mr Power added: “Some people reported that children they knew simply disappeared, but these disappearances may have perfectly normal explanations. It is not a huge number. We have records of everybody who was there.”

Mr Power said that the abuse scandal may have reached to the top of Jersey society. He said: “It’s certain a small number of people who are being named did have some official connection with the Jersey Establishment.”

Police are investigating up to 40 suspects and more than 160 possible victims. Seventy more people have called the police in the past two days.

Mr Power said: “We are not looking at a government conspiracy. This is very complex. We are talking about a period of 20 to 30 years.

Some of the offenders have lived and died before some of the later offenders came on to the scene.”

The Government is being urged to hold an independent inquiry into the alleged abuse. MPs led by Labour’s Austin Mitchell have said that the island’s political authorities have been “seriously compromised” by repeatedly failing to act properly.

Frank Walker, the States of Jersey’s Chief Minister, has denied any cover-up in tackling the allegations.

A spokeswoman from the Ministry of Justice said: “At this point, the focus remains on the continuing police investigations.”

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