Urgent check after abuse home staff linked to Island school

Thursday 22 January 2015

Urgent checks have revealed that no previously-identified Haut de la Garenne abusers are still working with children at Mont a l'Abbe school today after alarming evidence was given earlier this week.

But Education say they can't rule out that former Haut de la Garenne staff who haven't so far been accused or charged with abuse are working or volunteering at the school.

 A witness - named only as Witness 50 to protect her identity - told the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry on Tuesday that she had seen former abusers working with vulnerable children at the school, and that the sight had persuaded her to talk about the abuse that she received at Haut de la Garenne in the 1970s.

That evidence, given to the inquiry on Tuesday, prompted an urgent letter from them to the Education department, and this morning their lawyer - Advocate Beverley Lacey - told the inquiry that checks had been made. But she stopped short of saying that no former Haut de la Garenne staff were working with children at the school, saying only that no former staff linked to abuse was working there now, or had worked there in the past.

She said: "I can reassure the panel that overnight we have obtained the lists of all current and former employees at Mont a l'Abbe School and we are not aware of any allegations of abuse against any of those individuals.

"The allegation has been raised and I can currently say that there is no information available to the Education department or any other department that employs people working at Mont a l'Abbe has previously been charged to have committed abuse against children."

But she also criticised the way that the allegation had been made - it was originally recorded and signed by the witness in July, but was only passed on to Education the day before it was made public, leaving a six-month gap.

Jersey's Education director, Justin Donovan, attended the hearing.

The £6 million inquiry is underway to find out the truth about historic abuse on the Island and to work out what lessons need to be learned for the future.

At the moment, the inquiry is focussing on Haut de la Garenne, where a police investigation was launched into historic abuse in February 2008 after they announced the discovery of what they thought were the remains of a child buried at the former children’s home at Haut de la Garenne. The discovery caused a media frenzy around the world and although the remains turned out to be nothing more than a piece of coconut shell, the investigation led to many people coming forward claiming to have suffered abuse as children whilst in full-time States care. The police 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. Of those claims, 70 have now been settled.

Last year the States agreed to the Committee of Inquiry into historic abuse, a transparent investigation, chaired by a lawyer from outside the Island. It could take two years to get to the bottom of what went on.

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.