Court hears of ‘groping’

Tuesday 11th August 2009, 3:00PM BST.

A national press photographer tries to photograph Gordon Wateridge outside the Royal Court. Picture by David Ferguson (00762849)

A FORMER house parent at Haut de la Garenne who is accused of multiple charges of indecency was nicknamed ‘the Perv’ by children at the home, a jury heard yesterday.

On the opening day of the trial of Gordon Claude Wateridge, the Assize jury heard from two women who say that the 78-year-old abused them in the 1970s.

They said that he would grab, grope and tickle them at the St Martin home and that whenever he tried to hug them, his hands always ended up on their breasts. The girls’ evidence is reported in full in today’s Jersey Evening Post.

Mr Wateridge, who was 40 at the time of the alleged attacks, is charged with 19 counts of indecent assault on five girls. He is also charged with inciting boys to commit an indecent assault on a girl and with assaulting a boy. Mr Wateridge denies all the charges.

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