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: Let’s knock it down
HundredS were abused in a Jersey children’s home due to ‘state indifference’ and protection of the powerful, a damning report found yesterday.
It said authorities had turned a blind eye to physical, sexual and emotional abuse over decades.
The report said the Channel Island’s government was ‘ignorant, uncaring and unwilling’ to deal with 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.’
Yesterday, the three-year investigation recommended the Haut de la Garenne children’s home – dubbed ‘the house of horrors’ – should be torn down for the sake of its victims.
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.
Haut de la Garenne was closed in the 1980s.
Jimmy Savile was 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 probe into possible child murders at Haut de la Garenne after an alleged fragment of skull – which later turned out to be a lump of coconut – was found there .
Although the murder claims were discredited, the inquiry found 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 Haut de la Garenne.
From 2007 to 2010, police had identified 192 victims and 151 offenders, but only eight were prosecuted, with seven of those convicted. Four of those were linked to Haut de la Garenne.
In 2011, a Scots couple were jailed for assaulting children at the home in the 1970s and 1980s. Morag and Anthony Jordan, both 62 at the time, of Kirriemuir, Angus, were both convicted of eight charges of assault. Mrs Jordan was jailed for nine months and her husband for six months.
Yesterday’s report said continuing failings meant children in Jersey’s care system remain at risk 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.
The panel concluded: ‘Children may still be at risk in Jersey and children in the care system are not always receiving the kind or quality of care and support that they need.
‘We believe that the buildings at Haut de la Garenne are a reminder of an unhappy past or shameful history for many people.’
The inquiry said a ‘cultural change’ was needed, conclud- ing: ‘Failings were at all levels: there was no political interest in 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.’
‘Failings were at all levels’ ‘Their accounts went unheard’