Islanders 'living under a cloud'

Jersey's chief minister says the island will never recover completely from allegations of abuse and murder at a former children's home.

Frank Walker said islanders were "living under a cloud".

He said he was relieved that current police investigators have ruled out that murders had taken place at former children's home Haut de la Garenne.

Former chief police investigator Lenny Harper says there are still questions over whether murders occurred.

No evidence

Jersey Police launched an investigation into the Haut de la Garenne site, which was more recently a youth hostel, in 2006.

The inquiry became public in February 2008 when officers said they had found what was believed to be part of a child's skull. Following expert examination, police now say the item was a piece of Victorian coconut shell.

Police said in November that there was no evidence that any children had been murdered at Haut de la Garenne.

Mr Walker, who stands down on Monday, told BBC News he felt "relief that it didn't happen and anger and outrage and a real sense of being let down that it was suggested wrongly that it happened at all".

He said: "To learn that those allegations should never have been put in the first place is a difficult pill to swallow.

"Jersey will never recover from it completely.

"The people of Jersey will always feel under some kind of cloud, at least until the whole court process is concluded."

Former deputy chief officer Lenny Harper, who led the investigation, has defended his handling of the investigation and said he still did not know whether there were any children murdered at Haut de la Garenne.

Mr Harper denied that he had been too speculative in public, resulting in incorrect stories appearing in the media.

He told BBC News in November: "I always said all along that we had no evidence of homicide."

He said that police had merely revealed they had been treating the home as a "homicide scene".

Three people have been charged in connection with the child abuse inquiry.

There are more than 80 suspects in the investigation.