Care Inquiry: Deputy to refute "lie" allegations

Tuesday 01 August 2017

A Jersey Deputy is fighting for his political future today as the fall-out from the recent child abuse inquiry rumbles on.

Deputy Andrew Lewis was singled out by the £23m Independent Jersey Care Inquiry and accused of lying both to the States, and to the Inquiry itself - a charge he strongly refutes. Today he will face a group of his fellow politicians who are in charge of the conduct of States Members, and is expected to explain his version of events.

The States' Privileges and Procedures Committee will then decide if he breached the States Members Code of Conduct.

The Care Inquiry Report alleged that Deputy Lewis lied on three occasions related to the suspension of the former Police Chief Graham Power in 2008 while he was acting as Home Affairs Minister, over the alleged mismanagement of ‘Operation Rectangle’ - an investigation into abuse allegations at notorious children’s home Haut de la Garenne - by Mr Power and his deputy, Lenny Harper. 

The Care Inquiry alleged that the Deputy told the States during a private debate over Mr Power's suspension that he had seen a critical report on the conduct of Operation Rectangle written by the Metropolitan Police Service, when actually he had only seen a summary of it, written by another senior local police officer David Warcup. It is also alleged that he lied by referring to the suspension of Mr Power in October of 2008, rather than November. 

The report said: “We find that Andrew Lewis lied to the States Assembly about the Metropolitan Police Service report, stating that he had sight of it when he had not. We can readily see why these acts have given rise to public suspicion that all or some of those involved were acting improperly and that they were motivated by a wish to discredit or close down investigations into child abuse.

Deputy Lewis denies that he lied, and temporarily resigned as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) earlier this month in order the fight the allegations:

“The inquiry refers to an answer that I gave to the assembly when being questioned at length, during which I unintentionally described a communication from the Deputy Police Chief as a report. This error I have endeavoured to correct on many occasions, including at the inquiry itself. I am therefore concerned that the inquiry team have failed to acknowledge this. I am disappointed that this has been characterised as a lie rather than the honest mistake that it was." 

Now, the Privileges and Procedures Committee (PPC) have announced they are investigating whether Deputy Lewis breached the States Members Code of Conduct. The Committee, chaired by Constable Len Norman, will be hearing from the St Helier Deputy in a public meeting at 14:30 at St. Paul's Centre. 

Constable Norman said: “What matters to the Committee is whether, during the course of his time as a States Member, throughout his dealings with the IJCI and his responses to the Assembly, Deputy Lewis’ actions complied with the Code. In other words, we will be determining whether his actions maintained and strengthened the public’s trust and confidence in the integrity of the States and its members.”