Tear down Jersey house of horrors
Hundreds abused in children’s home Authorities turned blind eye for decades Police sabotaged by politician’s ‘lies’ Now inquiry says: Reduce it to rubble HUNDREDS were abused in a Jersey children’s home due to ‘state indifference’ and protection of th
issues facing the vulnerable. It dubbed the States of Jersey ‘an ineffectual and neglectful substitute parent’ and said hundreds of children were ‘effectively abandoned in the care system’ due to the ‘Jersey Way’, which placed the protection of powerful interests above children’s rights.
The report said: ‘ Over many decades, there were persistent failures in the governance, management and operation of children’s homes.’
The £23million inquiry revealed a senior politician had ‘lied’ to Jersey’s parliament in order to secure the suspension of the police chief who was overseeing a child-abuse investigation.
Graham Power was suspended in 2008 when then-home affairs minister Andrew Lewis told colleagues he had read an ‘alarming’ police report criticising Mr Power’s conduct.
But last year, appearing before the inquiry, Mr Lewis denied seeing the report.
Hundreds of children were abused at Haut de la Garenne before it was shut in the 1980s.
Jimmy Savile was also implicated in a child-abuse ring at the home in 2008 when police received an allegation an indecent assault had occurred there in the 1970s – but it was decided there was insufficient evidence.
Inquiry chairman Frances Oldham, QC, said Mr Power’s suspension fuelled concerns over a cover-up.
The police chief was removed from his post following a highprofile investigation into possible child murders at Haut de la Garenne after an alleged fragment of skull was found there – which later turned out to be a lump of coconut.
Although the murder claims were discredited, the inquiry found that there had been ‘many instances of physical and sexual abuse and of emotional neglect’ at the home.
The inquiry looked at 553 alleged offences dating from 1945 to 2004, 315 of which were reported to have been committed at the Haut de la Garenne.
From 2007 to 2010, police had identified 151 offenders and 192 victims but just eight were prosecuted, with seven of those convicted. Four of those were linked to Haut de la Garenne.
Yesterday’s report said continuing failings meant vulnerable children in Jersey’s care system remain at risk today as foster parents have reported the service is failing, care orders are being used inappropriately and youngsters still do not have an effective system to raise concerns. In some cases children were removed from their fami- defining and promoting standards of care and performance in residential care and no will to invest the resources required in child care services.
‘In summary, children in the care system in Jersey have been powerless for decades and it is to our dismay that we so often found that their accounts went unheard or were discounted when they ventured to express their worries.’
The panel recommended a specific commissioner for children, further inspection of services and more work in recruiting and retaining qualified staff.
Jersey’s chief minister Ian Gorst apologised, admitting: ‘We failed children who needed our care, who needed to be protected and listened to. Too often children were not believed. unpalatable truths were swept under the carpet because it was the easiest thing to do.’
When the scandal erupted in 2008, Jersey’s bailiff Sir Philip Bailhache had claimed the ‘real scandal’ was ‘the unjustified and remorseless denigration of Jersey and her people’.