Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / July 2008

Another report http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7534350.stm

Jersey murder inquiry 'unlikely'

The former care home has been the centre of a major police
investigation
Remains of at least five children have been found at a former
children's home in Jersey, but a murder inquiry may never take place,
police have said.
They said such an inquiry was unlikely because an exact date could not
be put on the remains, believed to have come from children aged four
to 11.
So far police have found 65 milk teeth and more than 100 bone
fragments at the former Haut de la Garenne home.
About 100 people have alleged abuse dating from the early 1960s to
1986.

Burned remains

Police experts have said the condition of the teeth meant they could
only have come out after death.
Two pieces of the bone fragments have been identified so far, one from
a child's leg and another from inside a child's ear.
Police have evidence the remains were burned, and that attempts were
made to conceal them in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
Deputy Chief Officer Lenny Harper, who is leading the investigation,
told the BBC: "We were pinning our hopes on the process of carbon
dating.
"The latest information we're getting is that for the period we're
looking at, it's not going to be possible to give us an exact time of
death."

Valuable evidence

He added: "The indications are that if the results come back the same
way as they have now it is obvious there won't be a homicide inquiry.
"We cannot get away from the fact that we have found the remains of at
least five children there.
"But at the end of the day there just might not be the evidence to
mount a homicide inquiry in an attempt to bring anybody to justice."
However, Mr Harper said a number of valuable pieces of evidence had
been found which "substantially corroborate" accounts of abuse at the
home.
Jersey Police started an exploratory search of the home and made their
first significant discovery on 23 February, finding what they believed
to be a skull fragment.
It came two years after the start of a covert investigation into abuse
following allegations by former residents.

'Systematic abuse'

Former Jersey health minister Stuart Syvret said it was important to
remember the abuse that occurred at the home, even if there was no
murder inquiry.
He said: "I know from speaking to survivors of the appalling abuse
that occurred. The abuse aspect was quite appalling enough without
children dying."
Mr Syvret was the Minister for Health and Social Services in Jersey
until September 2007 when he was removed from his post.
Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming told BBC Radio Four's Today programme
he would be speaking to a government minister later on Thursday about
the issue of the rule of law in Jersey.
In February Mr Hemming signed an early day motion in Parliament that
said there was a lack of confidence in the ability of the island's
authorities to deal with the abuse allegations.
Among the reasons given were the lack of separation of powers on the
island and "the prevailing desire on the part of the Jersey elites to
sweep scandal and abuse under the carpet to preserve their
reputation".
"What is clear is that there are five cases where there is sufficient
evidence to prosecute but the prosecution has been shut down in some
form or other," Mr Hemming told Today.
He said there was corroborating evidence from witnesses that should be
enough to mount a case, although it may not be possible to prosecute
for murder.
"There are efforts to cover this up, I don't think there's any doubt
about that," he said.