So, now a third room's been discovered:
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Jersey | Third room found at Jersey home
How can this be possible? 160 victims, 40 suspects, and all in an island with a population of just 90,000 people?
And how can this horror have been kept so quiet for 50-odd years?
Sure. It's completely understandable that the victims are reluctant to come forward. I'm talking about the complete failure of the authorities.
It's an island. A small island. What were all these "missing" kids going to do, swim away or something?
Is there something fundamentally wrong with the administrative structure of Jersey? Something that makes this sort of cover-up easier than it would be in other administrations?
Austin Mitchell certainly thinks so:
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Jersey | MPs call for Jersey abuse inquiry
He was on Today this morning, saying - effectively - that he didn't think it was possible to trust the Jersey authorities to run an independent investigation. Which is pretty worrying, when you think about it.
Oh, and from that article:
Uh-huh. So they're not corrupt, just massively incompetent then? Pick one.... Jersey's Chief Minister, Frank Walker, has denied any cover-up in tackling the allegations.
Any idea how the investigations started? Did someone make an allegation or something? This seems to have just come out of nowhere.
At the bottom of the link David James posted
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Jersey | MPs call for Jersey abuse inquiry
it says
'Police were alerted to the site during their investigation into child abuse allegations stemming from the time when the building was a home for children with behaviour problems.
In 2006, Jersey Police began investigating allegations of abuse in the 1960s, 70s and 80s of boys and girls aged between 11 and 15.'
..and...
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Jersey | Investigating Jersey's 'abuse' history
'But, after 12 months of covert investigation, detectives believe the former Haut de la Garenne care home may have had a more sinister past.'
'Jersey Police, following up a series of convictions for sexual offences involving officers from the island's Sea Cadet Corps, say they began to notice links between victims in those cases, and a number of island institutions, including Haut de la Garenne.'
There's a guy called Stuart Syvret, he's been banging on about it quite publically since last summer - and, hah, he got dismissed from the Jersey government for scare-mongering, they were worried that he might bring the island into bad repute. You can just taste the irony, can't you?
A simple search the BBC news site for "Stuart Syvret", you get the stories including following:
- BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Jersey | Senator in vote of no confidence (vote of no confidence in July because he dared to suggest there was a problem with child services)
- BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Jersey | Senator sacked from minister job (Dismissed in September for, huh, making up stories about Jersey's Child Protection services...)
- BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Jersey | Uproar over senator States speech (Shouted down in December 5 for trying to make a speech about child abuse cases)
There's even a timeline here:
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Jersey | Timeline: Haut de la Garenne
Apparently, the police have been investigating allegations since the end of 2006, it's only now becoming public knowledge.
'only' seems a strange word to use! Seems to be more to it anyway BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Jersey | Latest Jersey finds 'significant'
Last edited by Tiger Feet; 28th-February-2008 at 06:10 PM. Reason: elaborating
Not officially, but I've heard mention of a number of missing children, and think it's clear reading between the lines that we're talking about several.
Syvret's blog is here:
Senator Stuart Syvret Blog
I know I'm jumping to conclusions here, but from what I read, I think the man's a genuine hero.
Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story
From here:
So, it's obvious that no-one knows, but there are some serious suspicions....detectives did not have a "definitive" list of missing children.
"What we do have are anecdotal statements along the lines of: 'We were in there with such and such a person,' and maybe a first name, 'and they got into a row and there were screams one night and they didn't appear again the next day and someone said they had run away to the UK'," he said.
I hope they throw the book at both the perpetrators, and the scumbags who covered it up for so long.
The news on the radio last night seemed to suggest that no human remains had been found at all yet, but they had found some 'items of interest' including manacles.
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