The Jersey scandal

[milliec]

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Silent - I agree. There's probably very few people who could hold their hands up and say that they would never collaborate or worked against the interests of the UK, purely in order to survive under a similar situation. Self-preservation would be the primary instinct in most cases.

Dittany - From the sounds of it, the victims themselves are coming forward to give their version of events as they've read about the excavations, it's not the police hunting them out per se. They probably haven't got to the stage of actively contacting former residents yet but they will surely have to now as part of their investigations (bearing in mind that Jersey law and procedures will not necessarily be the same as the UK).

I have an awful feeling it will be like the Fred West case, horror upon horror unfolding & all of us aghast & not wanting to know but unable to stop looking/reading about it no matter how upset we get.

(sorry if that sounds weird)

There are supposed to be links to the Islington care homes scandal (as someone mentioned earlier), with children being spirited from one place to another and disappearing. It still makes my blood boil that Margaret Hodge, who presided over denial and cover-up as council leader when the Islington story was broken by the Evening Standard in the '90's (she derided it as 'gutter journalism') was subsquently apppointed Minister for Children under Blair .
This investigation comes too late for the children and it's heartbreaking. But I hope this kind of systemic, institutionalised abuse is no longer possible.

...then again, perhaps my hopes are misplaced; see here and here

Bless Simon Bellwood and Stuart Syvret; I hope they get the recognition they deserve.

Agree re Margaret Hodge, absolutely shameful. She was the minister in charge of reviewing the system after the Sally Clark/Angela Cannings etc. etc. cases, too. Gives you such faith in the child protection system, doesn't it?

Bloody hell!

Florence what chilling reports & as you say god bless Bellwood & Syvret for trying to alert the authorities earlier. From the sound of it there have been concerns raised for YEARS on Jersey but intimidation & threats from those on high kept the lid on it.

I hope there are a lot of senior Jersey politicians and care workers who are quaking in their boots as this is going to get VERY nasty and not before time.

I feel so sorry for the community of Jersey who have had this blow up in their faces, I fear those that depend on the tourist industry for their income will suffer as a side-effect of others evil doings.

it is really scary when you think how many people might have had an inkling that something was going on, and did nothing. All the people claiming ignorance can't have been, surely?

It's a small community Ruty & the mighty dollar talks. Ii think there were a lot of people in the right places who for various motives turned a blind eye or were just persuaded it wasn't in their best interests to muddy the waters.

Dittany - I didn't suggest the police searching for witnesses would invalidate any case brought - on the contrary, if they didn't make any attempt to contact former residents, it would be a bonus for the defence teams. I was speculating as it was early days in the investigation that they'd not got around to contacting anyone but would do so in due course. There's nothing preventing anyone from coming forward in the meantime before they're contacted .

I think with the eyes of the world's media on them, the Jersey authorities would be foolish to insist upon anything but the most rigorous of investigations now.

Bookworm I think they have indeed set up a helpline & at least 14 adults have come forward maybe more.

I think you are right about the rigorous investigation now but how many of them are going to be actually caught?? Bet there are many late night phone calls & certain amount of burning/shredding of relevant files going on....

Or am I just cynical?

I'd like to just point out that 99% of the people here in Jersey are horrified at all the findings at Haute De Le Guarenne, and 99% of us condemn those involved in such horrific things.

It's the small minority that knew about it and kept it hidden. And yes, that minority deserve to pay.

Bring back Bergerac!

Nutterly of course we realise that & it must be TERRIBLE for you to live in the media spotlight.

As I said earlier I hope the attention doesn't put people off coming to Jersey as it is such a popular tourist destintation.

Unfortunatley though you have to admit there is a lot of money in Jersey & with that comes a certain level of corruption in some quarters.

I hope they track down that minority you talk of very quickly, but I fear it may have repercussions for a while yet.

Are you inundated with bloody paparazzi?

I have to admit the paparazzi haven't bothered us locals to my knowledge. They are mainly camped around the site and so its not too bad from that point of view.

Jersey tourism has been on the decline for a while now, and this will have done us no favours. (I don't mean that to sound flippant) Jersey is a weird place. It (as a place) has a lot of money, and very few people are poor (in the sense of homeless etc), but very few people see the money here too. I guess you could say it was relative, but the decline in tourism and now this is going to hit a lot of people hard, and it won't be the people it should hit getting hit. The rich get richer as they say.

The government here imo is one of the reasons why secrecy and corruption can easily occur. You can almost be certain that those who need to be in the frame will be in positions where its hardest to be [through choice? luck? who knows], and I think someone's point about Lenny Harper rattling chains is a valid one, but I do hope (and I suspect) that whoever needs to answer about this will, even if the full story isn't gained. It'll be VERY hard, even for people in power here, to hide from the people asking the questions now the matter has become a public, worldwide issue

I hope so Nutterly, but as you say those in the frame will often have managed to cover their tracks quite well. We shall see how it unfolds, it won't be nice however it turns out it seems.

Glad the paps aren't bothering you!

what i don't understand is why this story isn't front page headlines EVERY DAY - it is utterly nightmarish...
is it because the children involved were in care so to speak (i use the term with caution)! and so no one cares about them? lots of this was going on so recently too.
i think of what i was doing in my relatively normal life in the 80's, and in some kind of horrific parallel universe this was going on. reminds me of what it's like to be a child and not believed.