Update on historic abuse investigation - team to expand

RELEASED TO MEDIA ON WEDNESDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2007 AT 10.40 AM

States of Jersey Police can 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 enquiry team bringing the numbers up to nine. This will include four people brought over from the UK: one analyst, from Merseyside Police whose role will be to examine all information coming into the enquiry and establish links and connections between the various strands.  He will ensure that no intelligence is missed or lost in the system. 

Also joining the enquiry will be two civilian investigators with extensive experience in this field and who worked at the Metropolitan Police and Nottinghamshire Police respectively. The Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police has made available a specialist detective from his force. Officers from the States of Jersey Police will continue to work on the inquiry.

Commenting on the enlargement of the team, senior investigating officer Lenny Harper said: ‘The team has been working flat out and we are mindful of the fact that we cannot ‘strip bare’ our operational response needs in Jersey. The people we are bringing over are very experienced in this type of work. We hope that these additional people from the UK will be joining us from Monday. They will enable us to interview both victims and witnesses in more detail and without making people wait an undue time to be seen.’

‘We have had an unprecedented response to the phone lines, and in particular, the NSPCC tell us that we have had more than three times the number of calls that they’d normally expect to a helpline of this type. We know that some victims have given significant information about criminal offences and are waiting to speak to us.

‘We have received encouraging support from the public and we would urge anyone who is thinking of ringing us to call us on one of the numbers provided.’

The numbers are:

Freefone NSPCC number for local and UK callers:

0800 169 1173

Callers from outside the UK should ring:

+44 (0)20 7825 7489

The Historical Abuse Enquiry Team can be contacted on:

0800 735 7777

The phone numbers are available on both www.jersey.police.uk and www.gov.je/homeaffairs/police