Jack Doyle and Tom Palmer

Police excavating a Jersey children's home yesterday discovered a trapdoor leading to the cellar where victims say they suffered horrific sexual and physical abuse.

The discovery of the door in the ceiling of the underground room gives further weight to accounts from people who grew up at the home, police said. It also emerged that developments in the inquiry have led Jersey police to call in additional support from the mainland.

Twelve detectives from forces across England and Wales have been requested and the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) has activated its national information and co-ordination centre.

The centre was used to help police in Suffolk investigate the murders of five prostitutes and successfully prosecute lorry driver Steve Wright.

The revelations came as journalists were given a first look at the stairwell inside the Haut de la Garenne home, where the skull of a child was found.

Some 160 victims have alleged wide-ranging abuse by staff at the home stretching back 40 years. They have described being drugged, flogged and raped in dark rooms beneath the ground.

Police forensic officers are engaged in a slow, methodical process of removing debris from the first chamber, in which officers have found two significant items, reportedly a bath and shackles.

There may also be two other rooms alongside the first, which are still to be searched and which were bricked up.

The excavation process is expected to take many weeks. Jersey Deputy Police Chief Lenny Harper said: "We have uncovered what victims have referred to as a trapdoor. We have found an opening in the floor above the cellar. What we have found corroborates aspects of victims' statements."

Police are also investigating reports that bones were found in the field behind the home.

Mr Harper said the bones were still in the ground but could be animal bones.

He said officers had been given new plans of the building which suggested the rooms referred to as the cellar were previously the ground floor.

They showed the rooms existed at ground level more than 100 years ago, he added.

He said more victims have come forward, with two claiming they had been sexually abused at the home.

"Two people have reported extremely serious allegations of crimes which happened here," he said. "Serious sexual crimes."

Another former victim told the BBC that children in the home "were being groomed by paedophiles".

Carl Denning, 49, from Gwynedd, south Wales, was six when he was moved to the home in 1964 and said he quickly found he was "getting messed around with".

He said: "It was always at night when we were put to bed. Lights went out. Occasionally somebody would come in and mess around with one of us in the dormitory. It was sexual."

Last night a couple living in Scotland who were employed at the home between 1971 and 1984 released a statement saying they had "nothing to hide".

Tony and Morag Jordan, of Kirriemuir, in Angus, worked as house parents in the home.

A statement released through their solicitor said: "During their time, Mr and Mrs Jordan found their stay to be a rewarding experience in helping disadvantaged children to overcome their problems. They noticed nothing untoward in relation to the care of the children in their charge."

A spokesman for Acpo said it has activated the Police National Information and Co-ordination Centre (PNICC).

He said: "PNICC provides mutual aid and support to police forces and locates additional resources including officers with specialist skills.

"PNICC support to date is made up of 12 detectives from forces across the country to assist in the investigation."