Police investigating a child abuse scandal in Jersey have uncovered the first chamber in a network of alleged “punishment rooms” where some former residents of a children’s home have told police they suffered physical and sexual brutality.

The 12ft-square room at Haut de la Garenne is dominated by a 5ft deep communal bath or animal trough which has been described by many of the victims of abuse from the 1960s to 1986. On a wooden post behind the bath someone has written in black marker: “I’ve been bad 4 years & years”.

Building debris from the conversion of the home into a youth hostel in 2003 litters the floor of the cellar. A pair of shackles found in the room has been removed as evidence.

In the ceiling is the remnant of an improvised trapdoor created so that the cellar complex could be discreetly accessed from the building’s south wing. Much of the ceiling has been removed by the police search team since the cellar was uncovered last week.

Later this week detectives hope to break through to an adjoining chamber which has a suspiciously bricked-up doorway leading from the first room.

The secret torture complex is now believed to contain a total of four chambers. Police believe the cellars were originally have been used to house pigs or other livestock.

Former residents have told detectives that the cellar complex, referred to as “Baintree”, had later been used to punish misbehaving children. Victims have described being lowered into a “deep dark pit” where they were left with other children in a large bath of cold water before being abused at the hands care workers and outsiders.

A similar-sized underground complex could also exist in the building’s north wing, close to where a piece of child’s skull was uncovered last month. Detectives are reviewing the discovery of other bones at the same spot in 2003 which were initially dismissed as coming from an animal.

They will also investigate an underground storage area close to the building’s swimming pool and two, three metre-deep pits in the courtyard. Areas used for detention cells in which former residents also recall being abused will be examined in the main building and the more modern Aviemore wing which accommodated babies and infants.

Investigations into claims of abuse at the home started in 2003 when a former resident of Haut de La Garenne was convicted of blackmailing a care worker by threatening to expose him as a paedophile. The investigation has been widened to include organised abuse at the Greenfield’s children’s home and the Sea Cadet force which used Haut de La Garenne.

Detectives confirmed today that the investigation has received reports of abuse committed in recent months.

A police spokesman said: “There was an offence committed late last year which is being dealt with. It is not related to offences committed at the home [Haur de la Garenne].”

A leading member of Jersey’s post-war political establishment was confirmed by police today as having been named as an abuser. Living members of the island’s establishment have also been identified as suspects but cannot be named for legal reasons.

Wilfred Krichefski, a senator in Jersey’s government and chair of several committees, allegedly regularly visited Haut de La Garenne to abuse boys un until his death in 1974.

One ex-resident has claimed he was repeatedly raped at the children’s home aged 12 by Mr Krichefski between 1962 and 1963.

The man, now aged in his late 50s and living in the West Midlands, said that every month he and another boy would be taken into a back room at the home and abused by two men.

The former resident said he would be woken by a care worker with the words “There is someone here to see you”. He was presented to his abuser with the words “Here’s a boy for you, sir.” The alleged victim man said: “That man raped me and did despicable acts. I know he is dead but people need to know what he was really like.” “He said: ’I’m going to teach you to be a good boy. You’ve been wicked and no one wants you. Your parents don’t want you - that’s why you’re here.’” The only person he told about the abuse was a psychiatrist on the island who warned that if he repeated the allegation he would be placed in a mental hospital.

Mr Krichefski ran a leading Jersey clothing store and was founding managing director of ITV’s Channel Television. He was awarded an OBE in 1958.

Lenny Harper, the deputy chief officer, said: “It is a name that we have been given and our investigation continues.

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