Several hundred people today gathered at a rally to support alleged victims of child abuse at a former Jersey care home.

A minute's silence was held to remember those who suffered during decades at Haut de la Garenne.

Police investigating the former home have said more than 160 people claim they were physically and sexually abused there from the 1960s onwards.

Several former residents of the home attended the rally saying it was time for political action to be taken to ensure such abuse never happened again.

Giffard Oubin, now 73, told how he was beaten and bullied by the older boys at the home during the 1940s.

He said: "They used to wrap wires round our legs and attach them to a generator and give us electric shocks. We were given numbers instead of names and if we got ill we were sent to the boot room and beaten."

He said the blocked off chambers that the police are now excavating were unknown to the boys at the home during his time there but that the abuse was not.

The rally in the Royal Square outside the States of Jersey government building was organised by Time 4 Change, a group of islanders who say their aims are non-political but who are calling for a change to the democratic system in Jersey.

Tony Evans, a 25-year-old Jersey resident who set up a group on social networking website Facebook asking for fellow residents to speak out against the abuse, spoke at the rally.

He said: "I believe that the way certain members of our government have represented us since the police investigation started has been deeply inadequate."

Another speaker, Karen Corbel, said: "There are senior politicians on this island who want to gloss over these events and present a positive image of the island.

"But at this point I believe we need to stop and listen and work out what we need to do to ensure this never happens again."

Another former resident of the home, 75-year-old Fred Carpenter, who no longer lives on the island, said: "It should have come out ages ago but nobody would listen to you."

He told how he was given just two months to live when he left the home in 1946 because he was so undernourished. He said: "There wasn't enough food because of the occupation, during the war, but even then we had to give a piece of bread a week to the older boys or they would beat you."

He said that the master in charge of the home, known at that time as the Jersey Home for Boys, could not cope with the influx of children during the Second World War and so left the older boys in charge of the younger ones.

He said: "The cruelty was unbelievable but when you're a little child who can you turn to."