Wednesday 7 July 2010

Press Statement.

For those of you who missed Home Affairs Minister, Senator Ian Le Marquand's disgraceful outburst in the States today, it will be online later tonight on thejerseywayblogspot.

In the meantime, ILM's disgraceful outburst appears to have prompted "The Friends Of Graham Power" to immediately release a Press Statement (below)

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT HAS BEEN RELEASED BY FRIENDS OF GRAHAM POWER QPM.
THE RETIRING CHIEF OFFICER OF THE STATES OF JERSEY POLICE.

It has been released following comments made in the States on Wednesday 7th July 2010 by the Minister for Home Affairs, Senator Ian Le Marquand, who is reported to have confirmed that all disciplinary proceedings against Mr Power are to be abandoned.
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Disciplinary proceedings against Mr Power are to be formally abandoned on 20th July 2010.

Mr Power will retire from the Police Service at midnight on 19th July 2010 after completing over 44 years service as a police officer. He is currently on leave prior to his retirement date.

Once he retires he will no longer be subject to the Chief Officer’s Disciplinary Code. Accordingly all disciplinary proceedings will cease.

Background:

Mr Power was suspended from duty on 12th November 2008 by the former Minister for Home Affairs, Andrew Lewis, who claimed that he had evidence relating to the management of the Historic Abuse Enquiry which justified action under the Disciplinary Code. His suspension was subsequently continued by the current Minister for Home Affairs, Senator Ian Le Marquand.

Mr Brian Moore, Chief Constable of Wiltshire, was appointed in December 2008 to carry out a disciplinary investigation and report to the Minister. Senator Le Marquand originally indicated that he expected Mr Moore to report to him by March 2009. Mr Power cooperated fully with the Disciplinary Investigation and at one stage provided a written statement of over 62,000 words.


· No disciplinary action was taken in 2008.
· No disciplinary action was taken in 2009.
· No disciplinary action was taken in 2010.
· No disciplinary charges were ever brought.
· No disciplinary hearing was ever called.
· The costs of the suspension and disciplinary investigation have been officially confirmed as exceeding one million pounds. In a recent written answer in the States the Minister for Home Affairs said that up to the end of May 2010 the cost of the suspension and disciplinary investigation had reached a total of £1,069,776. This figure does not include the costs of the time of the Civil Servants and Law Officers who have assisted the Minister Costs will continue to rise both in relation to cover for the absence of the Chief Officer, and in connection with the enquiry into the suspension currently being carried out by Mr Brian Napier QC.

The suspension was controversial from the onset. In January 2009 the Connétable of St Helier, Simon Crowcroft, brought a Report and Proposition to the States requesting an independent review of the suspension before further expenditure was committed. The proposition was opposed by Ministers and narrowly defeated. In the summer of 2009 the suspension was the subject of a Judicial Review in the Royal Court, and on regular occasions since 2008 there have been questions and exchanges in the States.

In September 2009 Mr Power successfully applied to a Complaints Board hearing for the Chief Minister to be required to disclose information relating to the creation of the original suspension documents. The subsequent disclosure cast doubt on the truthfulness of the previous accounts given by Ministers of the suspension process.

Following a Report and Proposition from Deputy Bob Hill, the Chief Minister recently agreed to an independent review of the manner in which the original suspension was carried out, with terms of reference not dissimilar to those first proposed by the Connétable of St Helier in January 2009. That review is currently being carried out by Mr Brian Napier QC.

There have also been questions in the States regarding the length and cost of the investigation led by the Chief Constable of Wiltshire, with some specific questions focussed on the scale of expenses claimed for hotels, travel and meals.

At every stage Mr Power has denied any wrong-doing whatsoever in relation to the management of the Historic Abuse Enquiry or any other issue, and said that he would defend himself against any disciplinary action that was brought against him.

Mr Power has made the following statement in relation to the imminent abandonment of disciplinary proceedings:

“I am obviously pleased this unnecessary and unjustified disciplinary enquiry is now to be abandoned. In common with everyone else, I am entitled to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. The abandonment of disciplinary proceedings after almost two years means that I can now be regarded as having been exonerated of all allegations. That is not a matter of opinion. It is an accepted principle of justice. In these circumstances it is inevitable that attention will now be focussed on the actions of those responsible for initiating and continuing my suspension. While it would not be appropriate for me to become involved in any political exchange, I remain willing to assist with any legitimate enquiry in respect of the actions of those concerned.”

It is understood Mr Power has already given detailed evidence to the enquiry being conducted by Mr Brian Napier QC and has indicated his willingness to assist Mr Napier further should that be required.

Further details in respect of Mr Power’s retirement:

Mr Power joined the States of Jersey Police in 2000. Prior to that date he held a number of senior positions in the Police Service both in England and Scotland.

Under the States of Jersey regulations relating to pensions and retirement the “Normal Retirement Age” for his position is 60. Mr Power reached that age in June 2007 but agreed to continue serving due to a number of retirements from senior positions in the Force which were taking place around the same time. He is now aged 63 and is therefore more than three years beyond the date on which he was expected to retire.

On the question of his retirement Mr Power has said:

“While I considered retiring in 2007 I felt at the time that it was right I should work beyond my retirement age in order to provide continuity of management for the Force. Since November 2008 I have further postponed my retirement in order to give the Minister for Home Affairs a fair opportunity to resolve the outstanding issues under the Disciplinary Code. I did however become frustrated at the continuing delays, and on a number of occasions in 2009 I issued public statements confirming that if matters were not resolved by 2010, I would delay my retirement no further. In January 2010 I effectively set a deadline by giving the Minister written notice that, come what may, I would retire in July of this year. This allowed the Minister a further 6 months to bring matters to a conclusion. For whatever reason, the Minister did not make effective use of that opportunity and in consequence I will retire on the date notified to the Minister at the start of this year.”

It is understood that Mr Power is retiring to England and has already left the island.

While he prefers not to actively participate in the political exchanges which are likely to follow his retirement, he may wish to consider responding to any direct criticism of his position. Should this occur, media contact details will be made available.

20 comments:

  1. Well here we go, has ILM finally cracked.

    There will be some busy days ahead thats for sure, now he has said there will be no disciplinary action how the hell does he put things into the public domain.

    I said a very long time ago that he was putting his reputation on the line

    rs

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  2. "The abandonment of disciplinary proceedings after almost two years means that I can now be regarded as having been exonerated of all allegations. That is not a matter of opinion. It is an accepted principle of justice"

    Apparently not, according to a former magistrate he still wants to do something next week.

    Where does this leave Warcup

    Where does this leave ILM

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  3. Oh what a circus oh what a show = if it were not so sad for those who have suffered at the hands of these extraordinary idiots you would actually believe you were witnessing a 'french farce' rather than reality which affects many peoples lives, how dare they, how bloody dare they undermine an eminent Police Chief Officer, his Deputy and above all those who suffered abuse. They all ought to be hung drawn and quartered and above all held accountable, especially those who were responsible for this farce to cover their own backs and those who were responsible for the gross abuse against the children and young people of Jersey. I hope that processes will be set in motion to take this load of idiots to the cleaners.

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  4. They ILM & rest should count themselves lucky they are not dealing with someone like the guy looking for revenge against the poice in the NE of UK this lot woudl have certainly pushed the button with him.

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  5. Be ashamed all of you involved in this farce that has affected a decent man and his family.

    BE VERY ASHAMED!

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  6. A decent man Jill?

    Thats a matter of opinion, I was never impressed with the covert operation on Curtis Warren in France that was carried out under his watch but there you go.

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  7. Ian Le Marquand,

    When you face the Lord Jesus, and he asks you what you have done, it won't be any use you whimpering about how you abstained from alcohol and gave money to charity.

    You pretend to be a Christian, but you allow yourself to be manipulated by some of the wickedest people in the world, people so wicked that they can murder children and laugh about it, and laugh at the people they raped and abused as children.

    You are covering up for these demons, and that makes you just as wicked as they are. Who are you going to get to speak up for you onb the Day of Reckoning? There won't be anyone!

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  9. Well done Deputies Bob Hill, Trevor & Shona Pitman, Daniel Wimberley, Constable Simon Crowcroft. They have always maintained that the key problem here was the totally unjust, shambolic process that would never let a man defend himself - and they have been proven right.

    No matter what crap ILM comes out with next sitting. Ask yourselves - will ILM ever give us the other side, the conflicting evidence? No. NO. No. Particularly well done Trev for this Tuesday you exposed ILM as a complete bumbling hypocrite wholly incapable of fulfilling his role.

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  10. The one who may have to eat humble pie, will be Ian Le Marquand.

    After Graham Power has returned back to work for his last week of employment....
    And suspends David Warcup!!!?

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  11. If I remember correctly (and I stand to be corrected), but I seem to recall that Mr Power was unaware of the illegal, covert operation regarding Curtis Warren, which at the time I found very odd.

    I'm pretty certain this was in the media somewhere, made public during the court case.

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  12. Jill.

    I believe you do remember correctly, but ubfortunately their are those who won't let the "facts" get in the way of rubbishing Graham Power.

    It now looks like ILM wants to hold a Kangaroo Court by showing "cherry picked" parts of the Wiltshire Reports and offering Graham Power no opportunity to challenge the reports. So the way things look right now is ILM wants to give everybody the prosecution's case but without the defence's case!

    I've e-mailed ILM asking him for an interview involving "real" questions. I'll publish the e-mail and the reply (if I get one)

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  13. I will wait to see the Wiltshire Reports and then decide whether people are rubbishing Graham Power or not.

    I am actually surprised people are making such comments before the release of a 500 accumulative page document. Maybe you people will just ignore the findings in your normal one sided view of it all.

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  14. What, you mean like ILM bringing a prosecution case without bringing the defence case, yeah that's not one sided.

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  15. Well sorry to break the news to you but Graham Power has been fully involved in the enquiry and has even submitted answers to questions made by Wiltshire as ILM claims its within thereport. You lot really will be eating Humble Pie next week by the sounds of things.

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  16. Oh good, for a minute there I thought ILM wasn't going to be publishing Graham Power's challenges. Perhaps it might be a "fair trial" after all with "both" sides of the story being told. Anything less would be a Kangaroo Court.

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  17. Funny how you know so much about Graham Power without ever working under him or talking to him. Funny that.

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  18. What a joke Ian le Marqaund is turning out to be
    Cant wait for next weeks instalment

    Please Mr Power if you read this, can you please come back just for your last week and suspend the PRETENDER at the station
    don't worry about handing your warrant card in, Mick Gradwell came back and managed fine without his and didn't even bother signing the official secrets act

    Congratulations ,Mr Power most of the people in Jersey know you were stitched up
    I would also like to send to you my apologies on behalf of the free thinking genuine Jersey people, you did a great job on the Island and I hope you have a long healthy happy retierment

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  19. 'Well sorry to break the news to you but Graham Power has been fully involved in the enquiry and has even submitted answers to questions made by Wiltshire as ILM claims its within thereport. You lot really will be eating Humble Pie next week by the sounds of things'.

    Even now some people just don't get it

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  20. So if G.Power is no longer suspended, but there's a week or two to go before he retires, can he nip back over to the island, march into Police HQ as Chief again and arrest the relevant bast**ds there for conspiracy to pervert the cause of justice, etc?
    :)

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