Jersey Police said yesterday that the tent erected in the grounds of Haut de la Garenne was there purely for security reasons. (Picture by PA News, 0541628)
JERSEY’S chief minister was last night accused of putting the island’s international financial reputation ahead of the child abuse investigations at Haut de la Garenne.
In an exchange with Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman Senator Frank Walker emphatically denied the claim.
Earlier, however, he had been filmed accusing his lead critic of ‘trying to shaft Jersey internationally’.
Sacked Health minister Stuart Syvret was with Senator Walker in a studio debate on the grisly find of a child’s remains at the former children’s home.
When they finished, Senator Walker made some inaudible remark to Senator Syvret who responds with an outraged, ‘Frank, it’s about dead children…’
The news team picks up on the spat and the camera swings back to Senator Walker, who is clearly heard accusing Senator Syvret of trying to harm the island’s good reputation.
Clearly unaware of the clip having been shown on Newsnight, Senator Walker utterly denied having made the remark and was grilled by Jeremy Paxman about it in a damaging exchange.
The exchange was a dramatic twist in the unfolding scandal of child abuse and possibly murder in Jersey going back over 50 years.
While police investigate six further ‘hotspots’ for additional remains, the media focus moved on to whether there has been a systemic cover-up of appalling brutality of children over an extended period.
How could such cruelty and a missing child have gone unreported or unnoticed unless establishment ranks were being closed?
While saying that everything would be done to bring offenders to justice, Senator Walker sought further to minimise the collusion claims by saying they were the comments of one disaffected person – Senator Syvret – who was on record as saying that his ambition was to bring down the Jersey government and the whole establishment.
Guernsey people have reacted with horror to the unfolding events in their sister island and the Guernsey Press has received many calls about it. Others have been in contact with allegations of their own concerning abuse and cruelty here, which are now being investigated.
What is clear today, however, is that whatever concerns Jersey has about its international reputation, it is already being harmed.
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