exposing the dark side of adoption
Register Log in

Suspects Are Establishment Figures

public

Alex Watts

Sky News Online

Suspects in Jersey's child abuse scandal come from the very highest echelons of the tax haven's society.

Home at centre of abuse scandal

They include high-profile Government officials working at the time of the alleged sex attacks and torture at Haut de la Garenne care home.

Jersey news station Channel TV has revealed 13 names -but police would not confirm whether any of them were being interviewed as suspects or witnesses.

Lenny Harper, the Deputy Chief Officer of Jersey Police, would only say the 40 suspects in the scandal "come from all areas of island life".

He again stressed: "There is no evidence of any government cover-up."

But Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt said: "The question is how many are from high up in the Jersey establishment."

Jersey's former minister for health and social services, Senator Stuart Syvret, says there has been a "systemic failure in child care" on the island.

He has produced a "top-secret report" he claimed was evidence of senior government figures covering up sexual abuse at a school on the island.

Further details cannot be reported for legal reasons.

Mr Harper has said there are no plans to stop any suspects leaving the island.

But he added: "If they do leave the island then we will find them in due course."

The care home inquiry involves allegations dating back to the 1960s - with the majority of allegations taking place in the 1970s and 1980s.

Frank Walker, the island's Chief Minister, says no current government employees are the "subject of any police recommendation".

A couple who were employed at the home say they have "nothing to hide" and would help police with their inquiries.

Tony and Morag Jordan, now of Kirriemuir, in Angus, Scotland, worked as house parents at Haut de la Garenne from 1971 to 1984.

Notorious Jersey paedophile Edward Paisnel used to visit the home dressed as Father Christmas to give the children toys and sweets.

Paisnel, dubbed the Beast of Jersey, was jailed in 1971 after being convicted of 13 counts of assault, rape and sodomy. He died in 1994.

news.sky.com
2008 Feb 29