Friday 23 July 2010

Scraping The Barrel.

In the series of eight “briefing notes” sent by retired Chief Police Officer Graham Power QPM to ALL “accredited” media, not that you would know it judging by the way they have (or haven’t) reported on the Wiltshire Report, while being in possession of these briefing notes. Below is the fifth instalment.

Astute readers will note that these briefing notes were sent before the NINETY PER CENT Redacted Wiltshire Report was made public, with only the “accredited” media being “allowed” an embargoed copy, and at least one States Member was REFUSED a copy! Team Voice were leaked a copy of this NINETY PER CENT REDACTED Report and even under extreme provocation we adhered to the "accredited" media embargo.

We hope that after reading this instalment that readers will be that little more informed and have a better understanding of the “tactics” employed by the Home Affairs Minister in what is increasingly looking like a barrel scraping expedition.

Briefing note 9.

This briefing note has been issued by Graham Power in order to assist editors in reporting issues arising from the decision by the Minister for Home Affairs to abandon all disciplinary proceedings.

Topic:

A story about some emails.

From time to time I take a look at the “Voice” website. This is because it is sometimes interesting and also so that I can find out what is going on given that the Jersey Government are not telling me anything.

I see that the “Voice” now have a copy of the version of the Wiltshire Report which has gone to the media. Lucky them. No doubt I will find out more about it in time.

What they seem to have discovered is that the Minister has apparently circulated some copies of alleged emails. This is an interesting development which merits some quick comment.

From the details I have it looks as if the emails were given to the Minister around November 2009. I received copies of them a few weeks later along with other papers. While I do not wish to bore anyone with legalistic details about process (but there again the Minister is a lawyer so he should be capable of getting the process right every time) there is something decidedly irregular about the way that this has been handled. To begin with the emails have never been investigated under the Disciplinary Code. They are obviously not part of the original terms of reference and we are asked to believe that they just “turned up” as an aside to other issues. When he received the copies the Minister had a choice. He could appoint an Investigating Officer to make enquiries (asking me if I knew anything about the emails would have been a start) or he could simply do nothing. Up to today it looked as if he did the latter. Nobody was appointed to investigate the emails, no notices were served relating to them, no questions were asked, and no statement from me was requested. (Under the Disciplinary Code the Chief Officer must be asked for a statement regarding any allegation.) So it all just went away. Until now.

Perhaps by the time he had the copies the Minister was growing in confidence. Having apparently decided that he was not going to need the inconvenience of a disciplinary hearing with a bothersome defence team putting forward evidence, he also appears to have decided that he could do without a bothersome investigation which would give me a chance to answer questions and perhaps ask a few of my own. Until of course the whole disciplinary investigation collapsed around him, and barrels had to be scraped in order to justify the unjustifiable. Then the emails were brought out of their box.

Just for the record, during a working day I send large numbers of emails and forgot most of them soon afterwards. The copies I have look genuine but without more information I cannot assist further. I have however managed to speak to one of the alleged recipients, who told me that he has no recollection of the message in question. Without a proper investigation and a chance to ask some questions, that it about as far as the matter can be taken. So far, on the information available, I have made no admissions whatsoever regarding the authorship of any emails.

What is however a good deal more interesting is what this episode reveals about the type of investigation which has been commissioned by the Minister. Like everyone else I have my sources of information, and the tale of the emails confirms what I have been told. Namely that the Minister has paid investigators to search through years of my computer activity looking for something, anything, which could be made to stick. But it does not end there. UK sources tell me that investigators have also been tasked to search the UK for former colleagues, including people I worked with up to 20 years ago, and have given them the opportunity to “dish some dirt” relating to my past working life should they be so inclined. So far as I know nobody has taken up this invitation.

Some people might think that this is commendable. It demonstrates a collective resolve to leave no stone unturned (and no expense unclaimed) in the pursuit of.............. well, in the pursuit of what actually? How did something which started off as an attempt by the Police to deliver justice to people who said that they had been systematically abused in the care of the States turn into a licence for the Minister to spend money on barrel-scraping witch-hunt against the Chief Officer of the Force? Who is setting priorities here and what is their real agenda?Sometimes it pays to step back from the noise and look at the bigger picture. Editors are encouraged to do so.

11th July 2010.

Submitted by VFC.

21 comments:

  1. Well done - another solid comment from Graham Power.

    On the subject of the emails, and quite coincidentally, I posted a note at:

    http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2010/07/was-email-wrong-shape.html

    Tony

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  2. Simply incredible!!!

    Let us now hope Mr Power puts in a complaint against Skippy Le Marquand for breeching the rules of engagement.

    What a bloody lowlife.

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  3. Tony.

    I agree with your posting (link above). How do we know, that Graham Power used this as "a joke"? But more importantly, there are question marks as to whether the e-mail itself is authentic as demonstrated in the main text of this post.

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  4. 'How did something which started off as an attempt by the Police to deliver justice to people who said that they had been systematically abused in the care of the States turn into a licence for the Minister to spend money on barrel-scraping witch-hunt against the Chief Officer of the Force?'

    This is, quite frankly VFC and Mr Power, appalling and sickening.

    I think the only answer to your question above is that sadly this IS Jersey, it IS the Jersey Way, and it seems that nothing stands in the way of the continued cover-up and travesties of justice in the pursuit of maintaining the 'status quo'.

    I am so pleased that your colleagues in the UK showed a more commendable loyalty towards you than you were shown here.

    Ian Le Marquand is a disgrace and should be in that very dirty barrel.

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  5. François Scornet23 July 2010 at 12:58

    It is indeed commendable that Mr Power's old work-mates refuse to join a witch-hunt.

    However, I am still concerned that the Witshire Police have implied that the officers' from ACPO were effectively bought off with posh meals and hotels in return for 4 favourable reports.

    It could of course simply be ILM's spin on the facts but I would be very worried that very senior ACPO officers are being accused by their Wiltshire colleagues of being corrupt.

    Are they aware of the inference being drawn by ILM?

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  6. Amazing, after renewing his (GP) contract they then decide at later stage to investigate his history,thought that would have been a process BEFORE even offering the job originally!!

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  7. Graham Power and Lenny Harper were the bees knees until they started to investigate decades of horrific child abuse in our State run "care" system.

    Now they are both under more scrutiny than one would believe they have ever been.

    You make a very good point, who is responsible for employing them, and why weren't they subjected to this scrutiny before they were given the job?

    There's that smell again!

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  8. Like the nickname "François Scornet". Honorable associations, one of my Occupation heroes, along with especially Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe who conducted a propoganda campaign in Jersey to win the hearts of the Germans, producing their own material in German, distributing it around St Helier - now they'd probably be bloggers!


    [PS you can see their cutting edge surrealist photography at the Museum]

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  9. Who is responsible in employing them?

    The whole of the States of Jersey Human Resources Department is responsible.

    Think about it?!

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  10. "The States of Jersey Human Resources Department" - Jersey's own answer to "Yes Minister"'s Department of Administrative Affairs?

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  11. How many are there employed in in the whole of States of Jersey Human Resources department?

    What do they actually do, for the benifit of the Jersey people?

    And this is the frightning one.

    How much in total do they get payed, from the tax paying public?

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  12. Just remember, a wife who has a top job at HR because of her husband, instigated a Chapman report for her husband for being bullied, then he was sacked,

    HR R the problem, no accountability whatsoever.

    McGarel-Groves & McLaughlin justify your wages and you both have nothing to loose.

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  13. The only people scraping the barrel are you bloggers at the moment. You ignore all the daming evidence against Harper and Power with Power's feeble excuses. This topic is exhausted so its time to find something else to talk about before everybody dies of boredom.

    No joke, nobody cares anymore.

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  14. This post has nothing whatsoever to do with this thread, but nonetheless I believe it is worth posting:-

    I have never read that Ian Blair resigned from the police because of the names he was called in the National Press!

    Nor did I hear Gordon Brown say he had resigned because some national press journalist persistently called him Gordon the Moron etc..

    Come to think of it, not once have I heard Peter Mandleson complain about being called Mandy...

    Everybody knows who Two Jags is (although I believe he was annoyed, it wasn't a resigning matter) and so I think it reasonable that the nickname Skippy could stick to anyone who who claims to support fairness but in reality prefers a 'kangaroo court'.

    I suspect when people start blaming blogs for reasons behind a resignation, it is diversionary from the 'real reason'. Further investigation may be required!!

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  15. I wish the people talking about ignoring evidence would at least provide a link or source for such evidence.

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  16. No joke, nobody cares any more

    I think you will find, anonymous that people do care and we are going to get to know a lot more than what has been released so far
    This is just the beginning , and if you are so bored why bother looking in on this blog

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  17. Maybe it is high time you outed the anonymous "States member" slagging off you and Rico on the Farce blog?

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  18. How can the anonymous poster think we are ignoring all the damming evidence in the report. Only ten percent has been released and you can hardly call it shocking

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  19. http://www.policeoracle.com/news/Another-Chief-Officer-Departs-Jersey_25290.html
    Looks like Mr Warcup courts controversy wherever he goes

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  20. Re "This topic is exhausted so its time to find something else to talk about before everybody dies of boredom."

    That's obviously why Mr Warcup left Jersey, because he wanted to change the subject. But much to his annoyance local politicians and others just keep referring to the facts and asking awkward questions.

    It's like those pesky inquiries into the Iraq war and Bloody Sunday. Why won't people just accept the government's version of events and move on to something more interesting like, how much GST should local people pay to cover 0/10? Or is that too boring as well?

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  21. [This topic is exhausted so its time to find something else to talk about before everybody dies of boredom.]

    The poster of this comment, obviously cares enough to read this blog, and cares even more to take the time to make the post, but has obviously not kept up in the detail and therefore lacks the knowledge that far from it being the end, history will no doubt show, its the 'new beginning'.

    I for one can foresee 'Skippy' having to eventually resign.

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