Media briefing notes from Haut de la Garenne

NOTES FROM MEDIA BRIEFING HELD AT 14.30 PM AT HAUT DE LA GARENNE ON FRIDAY 29 FEBRUARY

TAKEN BY DEPUTY CHIEF OFFICER LENNY HARPER AND SENIOR SOCO VICKY COUPLAND

We can confirm that members of the public are continuing to come forward to us following the publicity this case has received

This morning we were able to see very old plans which indicate what looks like ground floor rooms. We believe these may be our cellars we are looking at.

This morning the team uncovered a space in the floor boards which looks like a trap door

In another development this morning, members of the public have indicated other areas of interest we should be looking at

Elsewhere, our dedicated historic abuse inquiry team continue to follow up information away from Haut de la Garenne.

Members of the public are still coming forward to tell us they have been abused here

Our requests for further investigative staff have gone out and we are in the process of finding another 12 people for our inquiry team to help with the volume of work at Police HQ. We already have 16 there and the 12 are in addition to that. Those extra 12 will be with us soon.

We can confirm again that some of the allegations we are investigating are of a serious sexual nature.

There is a cost attached to this investigation, but that is not an issue for us to discuss. Whatever resources we need, we will get.

We can confirm that we have discovered nothing on significance so far today.

We have made no progress in finding a ‘third chamber’ which some people have told us about. This is quite deliberate as we want to work carefully on the first one and collect evidence.

We are determined we will get every ounce of evidence thoroughly from the first room before we move on. It is a delicate operation and we do not want to lose anything.

We can confirm that the suspects we are investigating come from all different areas of Island life. There is NO evidence we have uncovered of a ‘cover-up.’

We can confirm that the 2 officers who went to Australia are on their way back.

Vicky – senior SOCO said that the main problems the team are facing are working in cramped conditions. There is very little space.

It is very difficult to say how long the job will take

The cramped spaces are also filled with rubble

Lenny: With the field we are excavating, we can be a little more ‘relaxed’ about it as we know the land has already been disturbed many times through farming. We are taking off the top layers. There are suggestions (from lay people) that there are remains in that field but we do not know where.

What remains our priority is continuing to work in a methodical way so we can uncover as much as possible. We do not want to be criticised for not doing this methodically.

If people make an allegation, we will deal with that allegation. Suspects will be talked to no matter how old they are, and who they are. Our priority is the victims.