JERSEY’S chief minister has attacked the Guernsey Press for the newspaper’s criticism of the Haut de la Garenne child abuse inquiry.
In a letter to States members of both islands, Senator Frank Walker (pictured) said he believed the newspaper owed the States and the people of Jersey an apology.
He said the suggestion posed in editorial Comments ‘that “if trust and confidence between the police and prosecution have broken down then Jersey’s good governance is clearly in question” was simply ridiculous’.
However, the officer who led the historic abuse investigation backed the Guernsey Press stand and has challenged Senator Walker’s view.
‘A small number could not disguise their hatred of what was being uncovered and did all they could to discredit us, even joining forces with a number of corrupt ex-cops and their associates,’ he said.
Guernsey Press editor Richard Digard said he had no wish to provoke Senator Walker or the States of Jersey but the conduct of the investigation was a matter of legitimate comment. ‘Guernsey is not immune from the collateral damage of this affair and if trust and confidence between police and prosecution has broken down, as Mr Harper alleges, then Jersey’s good governance is in question and that provides grounds for the UK to step in,’ he said.
‘If Jersey’s system – a virtual mirror-image of our own – can falter over something so serious and so important to the victims, what does it say about the integrity of justice here and, ultimately, our right to independence?’
Senator Walker’s letter in full
GP Editor Richard Digard’s response
If you wish to comment on this matter, please return to this page after reading the articles and add your own comments below.
Article posted on 9th September, 2008 - 2.29pm
18 Article Comments
Who does he think he’s trying to fool?
The cover-up on Jersey is an absolute disgrace and will ruin the reputation of the island for years to come.
Report abuse
I am from Jersey.
Thank you Guernsey Press for showing how a real newspaper covers events.
You should be proud of your professionalism.
Plaese continue printing the facts and further prove the cover up in Jersey.
Report abuse
My not knowing all the details of this case is neither here nor there. ANYONE superficially reading all this SHOCKING information, can only come to the conclusion that with so much smoke, there is so much fire!
Report abuse
Thank you for helping to show a clearer unbiased picture of what is happening over here.Something is very very wrong and nobody seems to be able to find out what the hell is going on and why the so called “big cover up”.
Just an observation though, It was a cricket bat and not a baseball bat used on us. I know the reputation of the JEP and they will take great delight in pulling you up for misinformation.
Report abuse
As resident of Jersey, I am ashamed of Frank Walker.
The behaviour he exhibited during the peak of global media interest in our own unfortunate child abuse scandal was nothing short of disgraceful. He showed a primary concern with image-protection and self-preservation all the way through, from his infamous Newsnight interview to the rubbishing of a public protest which gathered in St. Helier’s Royal Square to remember the victims.
Frank Walker does NOT speak for the people of Jersey by demanding this apology from you. Infact, many people of Jersey would like an apology from HIM. I’m sure the hundreds of islanders (both online and off) who called for his resignation in the wake of the Haute de la Garrenne affair would agree.
I would like to thank you in Guernsey for reporting on these Jersey matters in an open and unbiased fashion. It’s unfortunate that our own local newspaper, The Jersey Evening Post, seems so concerned with protecting the agenda of Frank Walker and his cronies that they cannot function on a similar level.
R.Coldridge, Jersey.
Report abuse
Dear Editor, Frank Walker Said in his response; ”However, I must correct a number of the assertions in your inaccurate and ill-informed editorial comment on Jersey’s historic child abuse enquiry. As Guernsey’s only newspaper, you have a responsibility to ensure your readers are accurately informed on major issues. In this instance at least you have sadly let them down”.
I am sure many of your readers will be aware of the much used internet and SMS term ‘ROFLMAO’. For those who don’t, it is a chat abreviation meaning ‘Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off’. I can tell you that reading the comments of Walker, that is exactly what I was doing. He accuses your fine newspaper of doing exactly what the Jersey Evening Post has done for years and years and is still doing.
As Jersey’s only newspaper, THEY have a responsibility to ensure THEIR readers are accurately informed on major issues. This has rarely ever happened, unless it is to the benefit of the likes of Walker and his cronies.
This is a very sad reflection of the personality of Walker, whom I knew many years back when I worked for him at one of the then Pickwicks shops. As a young Jersey girl, I was horrified at the way he handled the situation when his shop manager had a heart attack. There is a lot not to be desired about Frank Walker and the many others that ARE covering up the horrific crimes of others, for the sake of the island’s ‘Financial’ image.
I grew up seeing, hearing, experiencing and knowing many wrongs that were done to children in Jersey, as well as to elderly in care, and the vulnerable such as those who suffered with alcoholism. Jersey police in my childhood years were on the most part corrupt, and I beleive this has changed immensely to this day, with the effort put into the Haute de la Garren inquiry standing as proof of that.
People like Carrie (previous commenter) and many many others have had their lives ruined. You dear editor, have stated exactly in your editorial where any apologies should be coming from, and to whom. Sadly however, the likes of Walker and the AG et al will constantly believe that this will wash over very quickly, like it didn’t really matter, it was a long time ago. They bring shame to the Island of Jersey, not those whom they accuse of doing so.
Thank you Mr. Editor for taking the responsibility for accurately reporting what is a major issue to the good people of Jersey. Your newspaper gives pride to the Island of Guernsey and its people.
Report abuse
This story’s editorial introduction is:
++++++++++++++++++++++++
We are happy to run the comments from Jersey’s chief minister and regret that the sense and urgency of the inquiry we were calling for – in the light of Justice for Families’ legal moves to force UK intervention in the abuse investigation – was not sufficiently clear, writes Richard Digard (pictured).
++++++++++++++++++++++++
The sense of that sentence is not sufficiently clear. :-)
Report abuse
This story says:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
However, the officer who led the historic abuse investigation backed the Guernsey Press stand and has challenged Senator Walker’s view.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What’s historic about the investigation? What’s historic about the abuse?
For the umpteenth time an outpost of the fourth estate has abused “historic” as a synonym for “historical”. :-)
Report abuse
Who does Walker think he is dictating what our local rage should print and what it should not. He may have sweeping powers in Jersey with the JEP and other forms of media and our press may not be the most democratic but its the GUERNSEY PRESS not the JEP.Lenny Harper and Stu Syvret and the surviving victims should be commended for their tireless courage and dam hard work in exposing the abuse at HdelG they have paid a very high price for for doing so. I just hope if Guernsey is ever faced with a HdelG it will be more morally and professionally handled in both the media coverage and investigations with no protectionism, biased or covered up..
Report abuse
The more one sees of the reaction in the Jersey States establishment to the investigation of the appalling goings on at the Haut de la Garenne childrens home. The more one gets the impression that they would have been happy for the people who committed these crimes to get away scott free rather than these crimes being bought into the public domain. Something seems rotten within the State of Jersey.
What these people do not realise is the world knows of these crimes and is watching Jerseys conduct in respect to them. The question many will ask if Jersey fall short in this task is, if they wish hide crimes of child cruelty, what else will they hide?.
For an Island which depends so heavily on being an international finance centre, an area where honesty is paramount, it is not the kind of question it that should be asked about it.
Report abuse
You have not provoked Jersey.
You have however provoked the self serving
millionaires who run it as their play thing!
Report abuse
How much influence does Frank Walker still have over the JEP editorial policy ? I know that his family controlled the previous publishers of the JEP (and GEP) and one can understand some degree of media manipulation, but I often buy the JEP and find it odd that I can read of a development re. Haut de la Garenne on Channel Online and on BBC Jersey’s website, as well as in the UK national newspapers, only to see that the story in question hasn’t even made it into an unobtrusive page of the JEP, let alone onto the lead news pages.
Its easy to draw one’s own conclusions but it is certainly odd.
Report abuse
You do not owe the people of Jersey an apology. You might owe the JEP one though. You have exhibited some balance and fairness in your report which is something alien to the JEP.
We, the people of Jersey, desperately need some outside intervention. This whole episode just stinks.
Now that Lenny Harper has gone so too has any chance of the victims getting any kind of Justice and closure.
Well done to you and your news paper. Our “ruling elite” need to be exposed to as wide an audience as possible, thanks for doing your bit.
Mind you, don’t you find it almost comical you have an erray of Jersey people on here (including myself) praising you for what effectively “JOURNALISM” Doesn’t that tell a story in itself?
Report abuse
AMAZING! … Now over on “This is Jersey”, we hear more twaddle from a MS June Beslièvre,19th September, in a letter to the Editor …
We are expected to believe that all those towering clouds of smoke at Haut de la Garenne came from not the tiniest spark of fire anywhere! …
The ‘human skull’ was a prehistoric coconut shell brought there from Tooting, the ‘burnt bones’ were dinosaurs’ spent toothbrushes which they used to recycle to light their lairs, the ‘childrens’ milk teeth’ were fossilised corn-cob grains from Sainsbury’s …
… And under my Aunt Hilda’s Max Factor, it turns out there was a lizard!
Are you getting my drift?
Report abuse
Thanks be to God Guernsey is not covering up what is happening over on Jersey!
I just had a comment of mine erased on their blog … which I had the presence of mind to photograph while it was still up.
I had the ‘audacity’ to criticise Sir Philip’s mealy-mouthed comment that child-abuse is “scandalous” when he should have said it was GROTESQUE! …. No, they didn’t like THAT … and got rid of the ’shocking’ criticism!
We can all draw our own conclusions from that!
Report abuse
So many people are confusing two aspects of this investigation. First off is the abuse. I think most sane people know that happened, and it needs to be dealt with and addressed properly.
But Harper went on to make much larger claims, about a veritable heap of bodies, and he can substantiate NONE of it. He even claimed that dog can sniff through several inches of concrete, FGS, which no dog actually can.
The scientists who told us this skull was coconut have no axe to grind, folks, they are not covering it up. Mr Harper just got carried away, and was so keen to get the abuse in to the open that he sensationalised the case and ruined it for everyone.
Remember the same allegations were made against a home in Ireland, but no child ever went missing and no bodies were ever found.
Let’s deal with the real abuse and the real abusers, and stop chasing dead bodies whoch almost certainly don’t exist.
Report abuse
Please note the last poster says we should “stop chasing bodies which almost certainly don’t exist”
The writer does not dare to put their head on the block and refuses to say:
“Stop chasing bodies which certainly don’t exist”
– Why not? – Because the writer is no expert at all on the matter and has no right whatever to misquote Harper … much more of an expert … and do so at THEIR own caprice!
While there is the tiniest fragment of doubt, however ghoulish the implication, the public at large, including me, have the right to know why, with all the incredible technology to hand, the bones found in the cellars could not be dated.
Something is RADICALLY wrong here; it is shockingly obvious.
Report abuse
For the benefit of Mog. Nobody, including forensic scientists, have claimed any cocunet has been found.
What they have said is it “could” be cocunut as it “could” equally be the remains of a child’s skull.
There is only one “coconut” over here and that is our chief minister!
Report abuse