Abuse witness giving evidence today

Friday 03 October 2014

The first resident of the Clos des Sables group home will give evidence to the independent care inquiry today, and is expected to describe abuse in States care.

Two prosecutions were brought in respect of abuse at the home – Leslie Hughes pleaded guilty to five specimen counts of sexual offences against young girls in 1989, and two other staff, Alan and Jane Maguire, were prosecuted for child cruelty in 1998.

But the prosecution against the Maguires was dropped when Alan Maguire claimed to be too sick to stand trial, even though no medical evidence was produced.

A statement from the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry said that a female witness would be giving evidence anonymously today.

The statement said: “The issues arising in these two cases go to the heart of the Inquiry's work - in particular the conduct of social services, the police and the courts in dealing with allegations of abuse.

“The notable feature is that because all of the allegations are in the public domain, the alleged abusers can be named.”

The inquiry – which has the powers to demand documents and force witnesses to attend and give evidence – is bring chaired by an independent expert from the UK, and is expected to take two years and cost around £6 million. The aim of the inquiry is to find out the truth about historic abuse in the Island and to determine what lessons need to be learned for the future.

It follows a huge police operation that peaked with the February 2008 revelations about abuse at Haut de la Garenne. Police officers investigating historic abuse took 1,776 statements. They heard of 533 alleged offences, 315 were alleged to have been committed at Haut de la Garenne, 66 at other homes or institutions and 152 at places where children were fostered or in private addresses.

The States went on to issue an apology and set up a financial compensation scheme for all former residents of children’s homes who were victims of abuse.

There have since been 133 claims for compensation for historic sexual or unlawful physical abuse from people who were children in full-time care at places like Haut de la Garenne between 9 May 1945 and 31 December 1994.

A freephone number has been set up so that people can get in touch with a special support team and any potential witnesses will later be contacted by Legal Advisors who will talk them through the process of giving evidence at a hearing.

The team and legal advisors are all independent of Jersey and all information will be treated in confidence.

The freephone number from Jersey and the UK is 0800 735 0100.

International callers can ring +44 (0)1534 828798.