Jersey Child Abuse Committee of Inquiry TOR's

Former Jersey politician and 30 year veteran of the Met Police Bob Hill B.E.M. published a BLOG POSTING with his concerns of some omitted Terms Of Reference (TOR) for the Committee Of Inquiry concerning the decades of Child Abuse that was able to continue in Jersey.

Regular readers/viewers will be aware that former Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur commissioned Ed Marsden, of Verita, to draft suggested TOR's for the Committee of Inquiry which he/they did. In the meantime we had an election which saw Senator Ian Gorst elected as Chief Minister, and for reasons only understood by Senator Gorst, he commissioned Andrew Williamson to review the suggested TOR's of Verita and come up with a revised version.

Subsequently Mr. Williamson produced a 3 page document that was inaccurate, factually incorrect, and offered very little to the debate which was seen by some as a waste of time and taxpayers money.

Chief Minister Gorst then went on to lodge P118/2012 and told us "Verita’s recommendations had been used as the foundation for its TOR's" but as former Deputy Hill pointed out there were at least two TOR's that were omitted by the Chief Minister from the Verita TOR's which are; 

"Determine whether the concerns in 2007 were sufficient to justify the States of Jersey Police setting in train Operation Rectangle."

"Review what actions the government took when concerns came to light in 2008 and what, if any, lessons there are to be learned."

Mr. Hill addresses these omissions on his own BLOG and in the video below. There a few more anomalies that have recently come to light concerning the Chief Ministers suggested TOR's which we will be Blogging about in the coming weeks.

In this in-depth interview with Mr. Hill we discuss, among many other related issues, the, what appears to be, very low profile stance adopted by Chief Police Officer Mike Bowron concerning the alleged abuse committed by Jimmy Savile on the island. Why has there not been a high profile campaign in order to encourage Abuse Victims to come forward, as the MET have adopted with "Operation Yew-tree?" The impression given by Jersey's Deputy Chief Police Officer Barry Taylor,  that the MET police are controlling the States Of Jersey Police is also discussed.

Jersey has a once in a lifetime opportunity, with this Committee of Inquiry into the horrific Child Abuse that was able to be kept under wraps for decades. An ideal opportunity to restore confidence in the Police Force after the damage inflicted on it by Messrs Warcup and Gradwell. An ideal opportunity to show the world at large that the government is NOT willing to leave any stone left unturned to ensure the "failings" of the past can be repeated. An ideal opportunity to show that the culture that has existed up until very recently (and possibly still exists) will no longer be tolerated and that children in Jersey are safe from predatory paedophiles.

The Terms of Reference, submitted by the Council of Ministers/Chief Minister, need to be far reaching and fit for purpose. So far this does not appear to be the case and those of us who want to rid Jersey of its reputation as a paedophile protecting secret jurisdiction ask that the Chief Minister amends his own proposition to include the omitted TOR's of Verita or explain why they have been omitted.

Jersey, and more importantly, the Victims and Survivors of Child Abuse, need to be able to move forward and put this dark period in Jersey's History behind them. Without a full, robust, far reaching and fit for purpose Committee Of Inquiry this will not be possible and the reputation of Jersey, on the world stage, will not recover.