The allegations made on Wedneday by an anonymous witness who resided at the home between 1965 and 1972 follow claims made on Tuesday that Edward Paisnel – dubbed the Beast of Jersey – would terrify residents and watch children as they slept.
The inquiry also heard several allegations of sexual and physical abuse against members of staff at the former children’s home,
Reading evidence from ‘Witness 205’, inquiry counsel Paul Livingston said that Paisnel would persuade children to sit on his knee before attempting to sexually assault them.
‘She concludes by saying that she didn’t tell anyone at the time because she didn’t think that anyone would believe her.’
Paisnel was later jailed for 30 years for a series of rapes and indecent assaults, none of which occurred in care homes.
The same witness also said that she was sexually abused each week for almost two years by an older man who was related to a member of staff.
A further witness – ‘Witness 201’ – said that staff at La Préférence would use corporal punishment on the residents and that they would use ‘a belt, a stick or slippers on my bare backside’ and that ‘as a result of the caning I would have bruising and sometimes bleeding’.
The inquiry later heard from a witness who was born in 1990 and stayed at La Préférence in the early 2000s. He claimed that he was physically assaulted by a man who worked for Social Services.
The allegations were investigated by the States police as part of Operation Rectangle – the 2008 investigation into historical child abuse – but the case was not taken any further.
Earlier this week the inquiry was told that Paisnel visited La Préférence, which is due to be turned into a luxury home, and would lurk in the bedrooms to watch children.
A witness, referred to as Mr D, also claimed that he would also occasionally stay at the home of Paisnel and his wife, Joan, to help with building work during his time at La Préférence and had been woken up one night to find the Beast leering over him while wearing a mask.
‘The landing had a flickering light all the time and you used to see these eyes appear on the top of the landing even though it was pitch black. I’m sure whoever was doing it was going in one of these cubbyholes – crawling around there in the room and this went on quite regularly. I saw this face staring at me and I now think it was Edward Paisnel.’
Paisnel was arrested and jailed in 1971 after police officers discovered a mask associated with the Beast of Jersey in the boot of his car.
Mr D also claimed that Mrs Paisnel would beat him and appeared to take sexual pleasure from doing so, stating that ‘she would go red in the face with enjoyment’. The witness said that Mrs Paisnel took a particular interest in him and that she would invite him and his brother to her house to work and would stay the night from time to time.
He said: ‘I was asleep and I felt a presence in there and it was Paisnel stood staring at me. He had some kind of mask on him.
He added: ‘I always sensed that Painsel was evil – you just sensed that something pure evil was going on in that place.’
The witness later claimed that Paisnel would drive him and his brother back to La Préférence and that ‘he would drive really fast in his grey van at night and switch the lights off – he was really trying to terrify us’.
The inquiry was due to continue on Wednesday.
EDWARD Paisnel, dubbed the Beast of Jersey, was a notorious sex offender during the 1960s and early 70s.
He regularly attacked women and children by entering their homes and evaded capture by wearing a costume including a grotesque rubber mask and wrist-bands with nails attached to them.
The attacks went on for over 11 years, with the Island becoming terrified by the Beast’s reign of terror.
Initially, police suspected that Alphonse Le Gastelois was responsible. He was arrested and subsequently released due to a lack of evidence, however, the strength of public feeling was such the Mr Le Gastelois’ home was burnt down. This led to Le Gastelois fleeing the Island to live at Les Écréhous where he stayed for many years despite Paisnel’s capture.
In 1971, the Beast attempted to evade the police after being stopped following a motoring offence. After stopping and searching the car, police discovered elements of his costume – including the mask in the boot of the car.
Paisnel was arrested and in December 1971 was sentenced to 30 years in prison after being convicted of 13 counts of rape, assault and sodomy. He died in the Isle of Wight in 1994.
THE Beast of Jersey, Edward Paisnel, was a regular visitor to Haut de la Garenne – according to his wife Joan.
In her book about her husband’s crimes, she writes that the Island’s most notorious paedophile often dressed up as Santa Claus when he visited the children’s home in the 1960s.
He was known to the children as Uncle Ted and is said to have handed out sweets and toys while wearing his red robes.
It has also been alleged that the jobbing builder was employed to do painting and decorating work at Haut de la Garenne.
Paisnel’s visits coincide with his ten-year reign of terror, when he kidnapped children from their beds and molested them.
During the child abuse investigation, Jersey police also confirmed that officers investigating Haut de la Garenne were aware of suggestions that Paisnel had visited the home.
However, in a statement, the police said: ‘At the moment, there is absolutely no suggestion of any link that we have uncovered between Ted Paisnel and Haut de la Garenne.’
The accounts of Paisnel visiting the children’s home are contained in a book written by his wife, Joan, following his arrest.
It is not the first time that the Beast has been linked to unsolved inquiries and even murder.
In 2006, former detectives who had investigated the murder of Finnish au pair Tuula Hoeoek on New Year’s Eve 1966 named Paisnel as their chief suspect.
Bludgeoned Tuula was a beautiful and slim, blonde 20-year-old when she was bludgeoned to death with a blunt instrument in a St Clement field.
Her killer has never been brought to justice and there are fears that the murderer could still be living in the Island.
The initial investigation was plagued by allegations of police incompetence and official coverups, with at least one prominent Islander named as a suspect.
Also in 2006, the JEP interviewed a woman who claimed that she was raped by the Beast.
The former air hostess, who was kidnapped, tied up and raped in 1960 spoke for the first time to say why she thought that it was the Beast of Jersey behind her attacker’s terrifying mask.
She broke a 45-year silence in the hope that telling her horrific story could help in the hunt for the murderer of Tuula Hoeoek.
The woman described being taken to a field in the western parishes and subjected to a 30-minute ordeal that she will never be able to forget.
She is quite sure she would have been murdered if she had not managed to jump out of the moving car being driven by her attacker.
