By Diane Simon Home Affairs Minister Ian Le Marquand
SIGNIFICANT progress has been made during the past two years in changing the culture of bullying and arrogance which affected the States police, says Home Affairs Minister Ian Le Marquand.
And the positive changes have come under the leadership of former acting police chief David Warcup and his deputy, Barry Taylor, said the Senator.
Commenting at the end of the historical child abuse inquiry, Senator Le Marquand said that there had been cultural issues in the force which were exacerbated under the leadership of police chief Graham Power and his deputy, Lenny Harper.
‘I noticed a culture of bullying in certain areas and a culture of arrogance,’ said Senator Le Marquand. ‘The message coming from senior management tended to be “We are the expert professionals and we know better than you”, and that attitude was being passed down the force.’
By Ben Quérée Former Chief Minister Frank Walker, OBE, and his wife, Fiona
FORMER Chief Minister Frank Walker has been made an OBE for ‘public service’ in the New Year’s Honours List.
Mr Walker, who stepped down from the States after 18 years in 2008, says that he is delighted at the news, and with the citation marking his years of work as a Deputy, Senator and as Chief Minister.
He said: ‘I am absolutely thrilled, and of course, greatly honoured. ‘I have always thought that the greatest possible honour for me was to be elected Jersey’s first Chief Minister, but to be recognised in this way is also a tremendous honour.’
Mr Gallichan appeared in the Magistrate's Court yesterday
A FORMER States police officer will spend Christmas in jail after being charged with 19 offences including making indecent photographs of a child.
Roy Charles Gallichan’s bail application was refused by Relief Magistrate Peter Harris yesterday in the Magistrate’s Court.
As well as the one count of making an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph between 9 December 2009 and 4 May this year at a property in the Island, the 52-year-old faces 14 counts of making indecent photographs comprised in a film showing a child between 1 January and 5 May this year.
A FORMER honorary police officer who groped two women in separate attacks just minutes apart has been jailed for 18 months by the Royal Court.
Virgilio Ferdinando Pita Mendes (35) was described in court as a ‘sexual predator’ who had preyed on two drunk, vulnerable women during the ‘unpleasant’ assaults in August.
One woman, the court heard, was left ‘petrified’ by an assault which could have been far more serious had a passer-by not intervened.
States caught up in a culture of blame, says Chief Minister
Senator Le Sueur: ‘More people should take informed and educated decisions’ Picture: DAVID FERGUSON (01114543)
Senator Le Sueur: ‘More people should take informed and educated decisions’ Picture: DAVID FERGUSON (01114543)
CHIEF Minister Terry Le Sueur has attacked civil servants and fellow States Members during a hard-hitting talk to business leaders.
The Senator accused middle-ranking public-sector workers of failing to make decisions and criticised some States Members for being too concerned with finding someone to blame when things go wrong.
At an Institute of Directors lunch yesterday he said: ‘‘Sadly, at the present time we have a culture within the States in which nobody wants to make a decision. Doing nothing, or passing the responsibility to a higher authority, means that one cannot get blamed.’
A CRIMINAL conspiracy by States officials trying to cover up child abuse forced former Health Minister Stuart Syvret out of his job, he claimed in the Royal Court yesterday.
The former Senator, who describes himself as an unemployed investigative journalist, claims that he was removed from his position as Health Minister in 2007 because of the conspiracy.
Mr Syvret has launched a civil claim against the Chief Minister, the States Employment Board, the States of Jersey and the Attorney General, saying that they are responsible for damages to him because of their actions in the conspiracy, which forced him to resign.
Solicitor General Howard Sharp, representing the four defendants, is trying to get the case thrown out.
A major part of the investigation focused on allegations at the former children’s home Haut de la Garenne between 1960 and 1986
JERSEY’S historical abuse inquiry is officially over, acting police chief David Warcup announced today.
The investigation – the longest and most expensive in the Island’s history – has been officially closed after States police ruled that all lines of inquiry have been exhausted. The final cost will be in excess of £10m.
During the inquiry – named Operation Rectangle – officers investigated 533 offences, took 1,776 statements, collected 9,874 documents and seized 4,620 exhibits. And a total of 192 victims were identified during police inquiries.
Jersey's Chief Minister has apologised to all victims of child abuse in the island.
Senator Terry Le Sueur gave a statement saying he was sorry for the way the children were treated during their time at former children's home Haut de la Garenne and in States care.
He said: "On behalf of the island's government I acknowledge that the care system that operated historically in Jersey, failed some children in states residential care in a serious way. Such abuse has now been confirmed by the criminal cases that have been before Jersey's courts. So to all those who suffered abuse, whether confirmed by criminal conviction or not, the island's government offers its unreserved apology."
The abuse was brought to light in 2008 when police started Operation Rectangle looking at systematic abuse of children, mainly in the 70s and 80s.
Seven people have been found guilty of abuse during the operation although not all at Haut de la Garenne.
The first person charged in January 2008 was Gordon Claude Wateridge, he was a house parent at Haut de la Garenne. In August 2009 he was found guilty of three historic indecent assaults on female children under 16 committed between 1969 and 1979.
Claude James Donnelly was charged in April 2008 and faced two separate Royal Court trials. He was convicted in June 2009 for one count of rape, one count of indecent assault and one count of procuring an act of gross indecency.
Michael Aubin was charged in May 2008, he was a resident at Haut de la Garenne He pleaded guilty in the Royal Court in May 2009 of abusing other children. The charges - all of which are between 1977 and 1980, relating to three separate children, were: one count of sodomy against a male child and two counts of indecent assault against two other male children.
In July 2009 Ronald George Thorne was charged with gross indecency with a boy between 1983 and 1984, on four separate occasions.
His son Julian Thorne was found not guilty of abusing the same boy after a Royal Court trial in July this year.
Leonard Miles Vandenborn was sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexually assaulting 2 girls aged 8 and 14 over a 12 year period in the 1970s and 1980s. He was found guilty of rape, and 12 counts of indecent assault.
The final case before the Royal Court was of Morag and Tony Jordan, who were house parents at Haut de la Garenne. They were found guilty of physically assaulting children in their care.
A FORMER childcare worker who plied young boys with alcohol and cigarettes before sexually assaulting them during parties at her home has been jailed for two years.
Yesterday, the Royal Court heard how 37-year-old Doris Ropers, who is also known as Dolly, ‘sexualised’ children as young as 12 during the parties by playing pornographic films, dishing out lollipops in the shape of genitalia, playing risqué party games and baring her breasts.
On one occasion the former childcare worker, who was the only adult present at the parties, performed oral sex on a 13-year-old boy in front of other teenagers during a game of spin the bottle.
THE States should remove the Bailiff from his position as President of the House to save Jersey the embarrassment of being forced to make the change by the European Court, says one of the UK’s most eminent judges.
Speaking yesterday following the publication of the review into the roles of the Crown Officers which he was asked to lead and which recommended that the Bailiff should cease to be President of the States, Lord Carswell warned that inaction could damage Jersey’s reputation.
The former Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland explained that the review panel, which he chaired, had sought the advice of an eminent London barrister on the legality of the dual role of the Bailiff as President of the States and head of the judiciary.
The lawyer, Rabinder Singh QC, said that while he thought Jersey might be able to successfully defend a challenge to the Bailiff’s role in the States in Europe now, the position was likely to be less tenable in ten years.
VICTIMS of child abuse received a formal apology from the States yesterday when Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur admitted that they had been failed by the system.
Reading a statement at the start of the session, Senator Le Sueur said that with the historical child abuse inquiry now concluded, it was time to extend sympathy to the Islanders who were affected.
He said: ‘On behalf of the Island’s government, I acknowledge that the care system that operated historically in the Island failed some children in the States’ residential care in a serious way. Such abuse has been confirmed by the criminal cases that have been before Jersey’s courts.’
The report suggests that the Bailiff should no longer preside over the States
THE Bailiff should no longer preside over the States, an independent review of the roles of Crown Officers has concluded.
In a report published today, the review panel chaired by Lord Carswell, the former Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, said that States Members should elect their own president either from within or without the Chamber.
If adopted, the removal of the Bailiff from his position as the president of the States – a role similar to that of the Speaker in the House of Commons –would end centuries of tradition. The Bailiff has chaired States meetings since the early 1600s.
