Letter from Lenny Harper

Borrowed from Senator Stuart Syvret's Web blog

To Jersey Attorney General, William Bailhache;

12th January, 2009

Dear Attorney General,

I write in reply to your letter of 8th January 2009 which I received at 5.05pm today. I am somewhat disturbed at some of the things you say in this letter as you have obviously been misled by someone in the States of Jersey Police.

Officers of Strathclyde Police did indeed call at my address when I was out, and I did call them as I was on my way to Northern Ireland. Furthermore I spoke to the Crown Office in Edinburgh on Friday 9th January 2009 and for the first time was told that I was being requested to attend court to produce “day books”, which I had already told David Warcup several times, do not exist. (Furthermore, as you will see below, he has other corroboration that they do not exist.) This was the first indication that I had of any evidence I was expected to give. As I told the PF, it is not good enough that someone should be treated in this fashion. I was never asked for a statement, never told I may be called to give evidence, and was clearly expected to interrupt any plans in Northern Ireland or elsewhere at short notice. As it happens, I have changed plans I made, but for family reasons.

Dealing with the points in your letter, Detective Inspector Fossey is obviously confused with the book I have already described to David Warcup. I kept a scribble book which contained nothing relevant, nor indeed, evidential to the Operation Rectangle. I have described what it did contain in my letter to Mr Warcup – a lot of medical detail in respect of my wife who was ill at the time, and many other matters relating to pre-retirement issues such as removals, pension, and other matters connected to day to issues of my life in Jersey. I would also remind you that for most of my time as SIO on this enquiry, DI Fossey was away from Jersey on a Command Course. Mr Warcup is also aware that we were being briefed on security matters by operational security officers at New Scotland Yard, and their advice, minuted and now in the possession of the States of Jersey Police, was that we should not use day books. I duly complied with this.

I am afraid I do not know who DC Kitchen is, nor indeed if he even signed my retirement card. I certainly do not remember any such comment as you describe on any of my cards, although it may be it did not register with me as anything other than a joke. In any event, I did not have a safe, as Mr Warcup will no doubt confirm. The only safe was Mr Powers. I certainly do not remember any such briefing as you suggest, and it would not have been necessary anyway, as I have been involved in so many murder enquiries, that I am very aware of the responsibilities of officers.

I have only ever received one letter from the good Mr Warcup and that was dated the 5th September. It seems strange that he e mailed me a copy of that one, but somehow did not e mail me a copy of the letter which he alleges he sent later and which I never received. Rather a co-incidence I think. It might prove useful for him to provide you with the computer record of the typing of that letter so that he can confirm it was indeed typed on the date you quote. Again, coincidentally, he has never challenged (nor indeed even replied to) my assertion to him that he never sent any such letter.

I am not surprised to see you state that there is a danger the prosecutions may be discharged if I do not produce these documents. Someone in all of this, and maybe even more than one person, is as aware as I am that these documents do not exist and will therefore be impossible to produce. It does not take a highly suspicious mind to conclude that it is all a ploy to get rid of the prosecutions and blame the “failure” to produce non- existent documents.

I am sure you are aware that I can only attend the court in Jersey voluntarily. The order is not enforceable in the United Kingdom. You are right in stating that I hold highly the interests of the victims. However, in these matters you quote, I have no evidence whatsoever to give. I have never been asked for a statement and have never been given an indication that I should be required to give evidence. Instead, I have been made aware by journalists and others of false briefings being given to the media by certain senior staff in the SOJP. They and others have leaked e mails which have appeared in the media in forms which bear little resemblance to their true content. Yet, when I have made Freedom of Information requests for these e mails in order that the truth should be revealed, those requests have been refused. Furthermore, they have spent many thousands of pounds trying to get Sussex Police to implicate me in Official Secrets Act and Data Protection offences on no evidence – indeed, evidence is in the public domain that the document concerned was served on the High Court in London before the media published it. Six journalists and two others have informed me that Sussex Police have approached them and tried to get them to implicate me. Yet, once again, when I provide evidence that certain police officers and politicians in Jersey have leaked e mails, the SOJ Police refuse to even investigate. Add this to the many people telling me that certain of them are falsely briefing the media against me, and it is not hard to see why I would need to be stupid to expose myself to these people. One only has to see how they have treated Graham Power and others who made the mistake of supporting the enquiry. However, I have already given an undertaking to the Crown Office in Edinburgh that I will attend any United Kingdom court and answer any questions there in respect of what I have said.

May I now deal with the Court Order? Steve Baker has obviously been given false information which he has inadvertently given to the court. I will deal with the matters as they appear in the Order.

As I have already stated, there are no day books in relation to Operation Rectangle. I did not know until today what Operation Cannon was and so it follows that I have none for that either.

I only ever had one note book whilst in the SOJP as I used it for evidence of arrests and searches and my involvement in those was minimal. I think the last entry in it referred to Norman Wood and there is no mention of the enquiry whatsoever in the book. I also believe that I left it with the SOJP. However, I am not 100% sure and will undertake to search my packing boxes to see if it is there and will send it if it is. In any event, the SOJP records will confirm the non issue of any further notebooks to me.

All policies and decisions were recorded, as recommended by NSY, in the policy books, e mails, and reports which are ALL in possession of the SOJP. I have no documents whatsoever which the SOJP do not have. This also applies to paras. C and d as outlined in the order.

There it stands. I have no unused material of any sort, whether day books or anything else. I have informed David Warcup of this several times. If I had any evidence to give which was of importance to the victims I would do so. This attempt to persuade people that I have unused material is simply a ploy to then say my refusal to co-operate must result in the cases being discharged. Then, conveniently, I will get the blame. I have no evidence of course, as to whom it is that is orchestrating this. However, it fits in with the desperate attempts to implicate myself in the leaking of documents whilst at the same time acquiescing by consent and indifference to rather stronger allegations against others of the same thing. As I have stated earlier I am happy to answer any questions in a United Kingdom court but I am sorry to say that the lies, false briefings, and vindictiveness shown by certain elements in Jersey make me unable to comply with your request to attend and tell the court in person that these documents do not exist.

Yours sincerely,

Leonard Harper