Les Chenes "JUSTICE?"

Senator Sam Mezec (Children's Minister)

On Monday 1st July 2019 the government announced its REDRESS SCHEME for Survivors of the brutal regime suffered during their time at Les Chenes Secure Residential Unit and for those in a Jersey Foster Care Placement.

From the get-go parts (but not all) of the Old Media were (and still are) reporting the Redress Scheme as "Justice" for the Survivors. It would be interesting to learn how many Survivors the Old Media have spoken with who believe what they are(n't) getting is "justice." Certainly the ones I have spoken with see it as the only option available to them. Their abusers are NOT going to face charges so they (Survivors) have to make do (for the most part) with a couple of quid.

After the public announcement at St. Paul's Centre (Monday 1st July) VFC was granted an interview with Children's Minister Senator Sam Mezec. We took away the governments (and parts of the Old Media) agenda as passing this scheme off as "justice." Instead of declaring money (and an apology) is being offered to Survivors wouldn't it have been a better declaration to make that their abusers have been jailed AND the Survivors have been "adequately" compensated?

We asked the Children's Minister questions along those lines. "Why is this all about money and not justice?" "How can a price be put on a childhood/lifetime of misery and torment?" How on earth did the conflicted, and untrusted, Law Offices Department/Attorney General's Office get to be the Administrators of the Redress Scheme? The very people who have failed the Survivors for failing/refusing to prosecute (and allegedly protecting) their abusers. Staggeringly the Children's Minister told us that some Survivors asked for the option to have the Law Offices Department administer the scheme. The Minister, through the Lawyer representing many of the Survivors, says that partly for the simplicity of it and partly for the COST some survivors chose the Law Offices. Really? The Survivors voluntarily chose to make things as simple and cheap for the government without being pushed down that avenue? They weren't told that if we put the administration of the scheme out to tender then that could take a lot more time and your ordeal could drag on, unnecessarily, a lot longer? We asked, alongside the governments apology, shouldn't there be an apology from The Law Offices Department/Attorney General's Office? We know that the AG's Office has some (many) uncomfortable questions to ANSWER.

It is two years to the day that the Independent Jersey Care INQUIRY published its REPORT and RECOMMENDATIONS and one has to ask; "has attitudes towards Child Abuse, and Survivors, changed in any way?" "How is money perceived (by the government and parts of the Old Media) as "justice?" As mentioned above, and in the interview (below), those Survivors I have spoken with have ALL said this is/was never about money, it's always been about justice. It's the government (along with The Law Offices Department) who have made it about money, it is not the choice of all Survivors. Their choice would have been not to have been abused in the first place.

Mario Lundy, and Stuart Syvret, at Jersey Child Abuse Inquiry.

Yesterday (Thursday 11^th June 2015) saw the long anticipated evidence of former Vice/Principle of Les Chenes residential School and former Education Director, Mario Lundy at the Jersey Child Abuse Inquiry. 

Mr. Lundy is the subject of around 27 allegations of physical abuse by, in the region of, a dozen different alleged victims, which he strenuously denies and yesterday was his opportunity to defend himself against those allegations.

He spent the full day giving his testimony, although some of the evidence to back up parts of his testimony no longer exists so he will have to be taken at his word. He told the Inquiry that the punishment/discipline books/logs where incidents of punishment administered at Les Chenes, to the residents, was logged in these books and would demonstrate that a minimal amount of punishment was dished out.

The problem is that these books/logs were ordered to be destroyed by one of his successors at Les Chenes in 2002 which, as The Jersey Public Records Law was in place at the time, looks to be a criminal offence yet neither a criminal investigation, nor an internal investigation has taken place in order to hold this person to account. Indeed when Mr. Lundy became aware of the destruction of these records in 2008, as Director of Education, he did not see fit to order an investigation knowing he was apparently counting on them as evidence in his, and Les Chenes, defence. It’s still a mystery as to why anybody would want them destroyed and hopefully the Child Abuse Inquiry will be able to get to the bottom of it?

Present at yesterday’s Hearing was former Senator/Health Minister and Whistle-blower, Stuart Syvret, who, in the interview below, gives us his take on what he sees as the bigger news stories to come out of yesterday which were not reported by the State Media. In some cases have been reported by the State Media but with its own particular slant/agenda attached.

Although the BBC (rightly) gets a bit of a kicking in the interview, it has to be said, that, of late, its reporting has been a huge improvement on its previous (non) reporting. The same also has to be said of the JEP but alas the discredited, and disgraced, ITV/CTV’s (non) reporting remains as appalling as it always was during the entire Jersey Child Abuse Cover-Up.

We hope readers/viewers will be better informed as to some of the facts behind the stories you are(n’t) seeing in the State Media. We also hope that the Victims and Survivors, who have been to hell and (some) back after suffering the abuse and its effects will get some kind of justice and closure as a result of this Inquiry.