Couple guilty of Jersey children's home assaults
LONDON — A married couple from Scotland were found guilty on Friday of assaulting vulnerable youngsters at a children's home in Jersey. Morag and Anthony Jordan, both 62, were both convicted of eight separate counts relating to abuse at the Haut de la Garenne home in the 1970s and 80s.
But a jury at the Royal Court of Jersey also acquitted Morag Jordan of a further 28 counts and her husband of four.
Former residents of the children's care home wept at the back of the court as the verdicts were read out.
The couple, from Kirriemuir, Angus, who were arrested during a probe into suspected abuse at the home, were accused of inflicting "casual and routine violence" while working as houseparents at the home.
After a two-week trial, Morag Jordan was convicted of charges on Friday relating to assaults on four children who stayed at the home. One had her face pushed into urine soaked sheets after she had wet the bed.
"She used to pull my face into the sheets and let the other children know what I had done, called me 'pissybed' and 'pissypants'," the woman, now in her 40s, told the court.
But the jury found it only happened on one occasion, returning a verdict of not guilty on a second similar count.
The jury also acquitted her of other offences alleged by the witness, including being force fed and being pulled around by her ears.
They also rejected accusations by witnesses relating to other children having their faces rubbed in puddles of urine.
They did, however, convict Morag Jordan of hitting former residents with her hand and with a wooden shoe.
Her husband was found guilty of common assault against two children.
Anthony Jordan's convictions relate to hitting former residents with a metal spoon, a knife or with his hand.
The pair will be sentenced in January.
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