Archive for jersey
People working with children and vulnerable adults can now be checked in Jersey for criminal records.
The checks will be carried out in the island by the Jersey Vetting Bureau.
It involves filling out an application form and showing proof of identity.
Kevin McKerrell, from the Jersey Vetting Bureau, said: “This marks the start of a new era for safeguarding checks for those working with vulnerable groups in the island.”
Source: BBC
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A three-month investigation by The Mail on Sunday has revealed: David Rose reports:
The main witness behind Harper’s decision to begin the search for bodies was a woman with a known history of psychotic fantasy and alcoholism. She named children she said she had seen jumping to their deaths from Haut de la Garenne windows and hanging from trees in the garden, where she said she also found a severed hand. None of these claims were true.
Eddie the sniffer dog – the animal that had supposedly found the ‘scent of death’ in the Portuguese flat where Madeleine McCann disappeared – no ...
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A 71-year old pensioner has become the fourth person to be charged in connection with Jersey’s historical abuse inquiry.
Ronald George Thorne, of St Helier faces four charges of inciting acts of gross indecency with a boy on four separate occasions.
The alleged offences are said to have taken place between 1983 and 1987. The charges are not related to Haut de la Garenne.
The States police released a statement yesterday saying that they had charged the pensioner following advice received from the legal advisers acting on behalf of the Law Officers’ department.
Source: Jersey Evening Post and State of Jersey Police
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A man who sexually abused boys at a Jersey care home when he was a teenage resident in the 1970s was today sentenced to two years’ probation.
Michael Aubin, 46, who was born in Jersey and lives in Southampton, carried out the attacks while he lived at the Haut de la Garenne home in the 1970s.
The former cleaner, who claims he was abused himself at the home by a member of staff known as “the bogeyman”, was sentenced at Jersey’s royal court for two counts of gross indecency and two of indecent assault on children under 10.
The court heard Aubin suffered ...
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When a deputy police chief announced that children had been killed and buried at a Jersey home, the media were satisfied. But was it true?
Throwing a miniature rugby ball around his cramped office in Broadcasting House, the run-down former BBC centre that now serves as a police HQ in Jersey’s capital, St Helier, Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell is one policeman whose lot is not a happy one. A self-styled “Lancashire Bobby” with a track record of dealing with multiple deaths such as those of the Chinese cocklers who drowned in Morecambe Bay four years ago, the DSI was appointed to ...
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For some of the journalists assembled for a Press conference at Jersey’s police headquarters last Wednesday morning, the shock was almost palpable.
Since February 23 this year, when the island’s then deputy chief officer, Lenny Harper, first addressed them outside the granite walls of the Haut de la Garenne former children’s home, they had been led to believe it had been a house of horror – a place where children were tortured and abused in a labyrinth of cellars, and that possibly as many as seven were murdered.
Now, a bluff, straightforward and extremely experienced Lancashire detective, Det Supt Mick Gradwell, who ...
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Jersey’s police chief was suspended today after confirmation that suspicious bone fragments found at Haut de la Garenne were up to 500 years old, and that there was no evidence to back up claims of murder at a former children’s home dubbed the island’s “house of horrors”. Graham Power, Chief Officer of the States of Jersey Police, was relieved of his duties pending an inquiry into his role in the high-profile investigation into events at the hostel, which closed in 1986.
Frank Walker, the island’s Chief Minister, said that he was concerned about the damage done to Jersey’s reputation by the ...
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The following article by Phillippe Naughton appeared in the Times (here) on 12th November 2008
Jersey’s police chief was suspended today after confirmation that suspicious bone fragments found at Haut de la Garenne were up to 500 years old, and that there was no evidence to back up claims of murder at a former children’s home dubbed the island’s “house of horrors”.
Graham Power, Chief Officer of the States of Jersey Police, was relieved of his duties pending an inquiry into his role in the high-profile investigation into events at the hostel, which closed in 1986.
Frank Walker, the island’s Chief Minister, said ...
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Community Care have reported that the sacking of a UK social worker from a Jersey secure unit would have been considered unfair if his employment tribunal had concluded, an inquiry has found.Simon Bellwood, who went public in Community Care last year with his concerns, claimed children were being locked up in solitary confinement for 24 hours or more under a system known as grand prix, and that his manager had bullied and harrassed him at the Greenfields unit.
Bellwood claimed unfair dismissal last year and his case went to an employment tribunal this March, which was settled in his favour halfway through the proceedings. As ...
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Jack Straw faced pressure yesterday to appoint an independent judge to oversee the child abuse investigation in Jersey, after police were prevented from charging two suspects.Detectives said that there was sufficient evidence to charge the couple with serious sexual and physical assaults within the childcare system during the 1960s and 1970s. A member of the island’s volunteer police force refused to do so after seeking legal advice from the office of Jersey’s Attorney-General.Politicians said that the Justice Secretary ought to use his powers to appoint an outside judge to Jersey because of the risk to the rule of law.Jersey Police ...
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A Jersey care manager who sacked a UK social worker from a secure unit has been reinstated after an internal investigation.Joe Kennedy, the residential services manager for the States of Jersey, was suspended and investigated after the sacking of Simon Bellwood who had criticised practice on the island.Bellwood had complained about Kennedy’s policy of locking children in solitary confinement – known as grand prix – at the Greenfields secure unit. He also alleged Kennedy had harrassed and bullied him.After Bellwood’s employment tribunal in March, Kennedy was suspended and subjected to an internal management investigation. A separate independent investigation into the circumstances of Bellwood’s dismissal ...
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The skull fragment found in the Haut de la Garenne children’s home has always been the most important piece of evidence in the investigation. But some of the facts given to the press about it by the police were untrue.
Richard Webster conducts his own inquiry (here) during which he speaks to the scientist who carried out the carbon dating of the fragment.
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There has been a considerable amount of comment in the press and media regarding the claims that children were abused at the Haut de la Garenne Children’s home in Jersey. What ever the facts of the case much of this comment has been whipped up by a media frenzy and by misleading leaks to the press. Supporters of F.A.C.T will therefore be very interested in Richard Webster’s critique of the press response to date which he reviews in the context of similar inquiries elsewhere, and moral panic. Well worth reading.
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Impact of false accusations on care workers is great
Being caught in the tangled web of false allegations is a nightmare that many struggle to recover from.
Of all the bogey men that haunt teachers’ nightmares, none is more dreadful than that of the false, malicious allegation.
F.A.C.T. (Falsely Accused Carers and Teachers) was initially formed to support staff who had been falsely accused or wrongly convicted of child abuse. It campaigns for reform in the criminal justice system to prevent miscarriages of justice, and for improvements in investigative practices to remove the presumption of guilt.
Those who abuse children should face the severest punishment. ...
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There has been a great deal of media speculation (some of it quite irrational) regarding the significance of the discovery of bone fragments at Haut de la Garenne former children’s home in Jersey – According to recent reports in the Times it now apears that the police have said …..” ….. the latest bones found at a former children’s home at the centre of a child abuse investigation in Jersey are “quite likely” to turn out to be from cattle and …. that the skull fragment is no older than 1920.
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The following article by Carl Butler on 3rd March appeared in the North Wales edition of the Liverpool Daily Post (here)Fighting child abuse should be the number one priority for North Wales Police, a survey of public opinion undertaken by the police authority has revealed. The wide-ranging independent study commissioned by North Wales Police Authority reached its conclusion before the allegations surfaced of abuse at the former children’s home, Haut de la Garenne, in Jersey.The results of the Llais y Gogledd/Voice of North Wales survey clearly showed that child abuse was the issue people thought the police should devote most attention ...
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The BBC have reported that archaeologists and forensic scientists are conducting fingertip searches of a former Jersey children’s home where the remains of a child have been found. The remains found at Haut de la Garenne on Saturday were detected by a sniffer dog through several inches of concrete.Jersey police say the dog has also indicated other areas that warrant further investigation. The search is part of an ongoing police investigation into alleged abuse on the island dating back more than 40 years. Jersey’s Deputy Chief Police Officer, Lenny Harper, who is in charge of the investigation, said detectives thought ...
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According to Community Care the UK social worker who was sacked after he blew the whistle on “abusive” child care practice in Jersey is taking his case to an employment tribunal next month.Simon Bellwood is claiming he was unfairly dismissed from his job as centre manager at Greenfields secure unit on the island last year.Bellwood raised concerns over a “Dickensian” system in the unit where children as young as 11 were routinely locked up for 24 hours or more in solitary confinement.The Jersey government claimed the so-called “Grand Prix” system was designed to create an orderly environment at the unit against ...
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The following Press release (here) has been issued by the States of Jersey Police The States of Jersey Police can now confirm that they have now had contact with around 60 victims and witnesses who have contacted them following the launch of the historical abuse inquiry at Island institutions last week. Around 33 calls have been made to the Jersey-based historical abuse enquiry team, while 20 calls have now been made to the UK based dedicated NSPCC helpline. There have also been contacts made by letter and email.From next week, more staff will be working with the dedicated historical abuse ...
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By David Zucchino, Times Staff WriterBEAR, Del. — It took a lifetime for Eboni Wilson to build a reputation, and just a few hours to lose it. The son of drug addicts, Wilson grew up poor and rootless in South Los Angeles. He lived in a garage, stole food and a car, and witnessed killings and robberies.Wilson, now 28, turned his life around after winning a football scholarship to Washington State University. He played in the Rose Bowl, and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a doctorate in education.On April 6, Wilson was four months into his job as a ...
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