Jersey Haut de la Garenne sniffer dog footage posted online

Footage of a sniffer dog searching inside a Jersey children's home as part of an historical abuse investigation has been published on an internet site.

The film was acquired and published by the blog site Voice for children.

The footage was shot on a mobile phone by police investigators at Haut de la Garenne in early 2008.

The former senior investigating officer Lenny Harper said the dog, Eddie, gave officers enough evidence to widen their abuse investigation at the home.

He said he was initially sceptical about using the dog and his handler, Martin Grimes, but said his initial impression changed after working with them.

He said: "Whilst dogs can always get it wrong, I think that there was ample corroborating evidence of the dog's reaction to justify the need to investigate further."

'React strongly'

Eddie is trained to detect human remains and helped in the search for Madeleine McCann.

In the video he was seen to react strongly in certain parts of the building.

The day after the video was made, the police found what they thought were partial human remains.

Dozens of teeth were also uncovered, but later that year statements from the police cast doubt on those initial findings.

It was not clear why it had come out now, but the video shot in 2008 was posted by Voice for children with accompanying comments from Mr Harper.