By Ben Quérée
SUSPENDED police chief Graham Power continued his fight for reinstatement in the Royal Court yesterday.
Mr Power has applied for a Judicial Review of Home Affairs Minister Ian Le Marquand’s decision to continue the suspension. The suspended officer cited the Senator’s refusal to take account of positive independent reviews of the historical child abuse investigation into account when deciding to suspend him.
But Solicitor-General Tim Le Cocq, representing the minister, said that a letter from Mr Power’s deputy, David Warcup, had raised credible and serious concerns about the conduct of the inquiry, the media strategy, the way money was handled, and investigative issues.
Advocate Le Cocq said that once he had read that letter, there was really no choice but to suspend Mr Power. Mr Warcup was brought to the Island to replace Lenny Harper as the head of the child abuse inquiry last August, and had day-to-day control of it until November, when he took over from Mr Power following the suspension.
Former Home Affairs Minister Andrew Lewis suspended Mr Power in November, the day after a police press conference at which officers revealed that there was no evidence of murder at the former children’s home at Haut de la Garenne.
Article posted on 23rd July, 2009 - 2.56pm
Solicitor General defends police chief’s suspension