Police officers involved in cover up of paedophile ring, says former Deputy Police Chief Lenny Harper led the investigation into allegations of child abuse at former children’s home Haut de la Garenne in 2008, Pope accepts resignation of Australian bishop accused of being evasive at abuse inquiry
January 13, 2016 Comments Off on Police officers involved in cover up of paedophile ring, says former Deputy Police Chief Lenny Harper led the investigation into allegations of child abuse at former children’s home Haut de la Garenne in 2008, Pope accepts resignation of Australian bishop accused of being evasive at abuse inquiry
Police officers involved in cover up of paedophile ring, says former Deputy Police Chief
12 January 2016
A former Deputy Chief Officer of Jersey’s police force has today claimed senior police officers were involved in the cover up of a paedophile ring.
Lenny Harper led the investigation into allegations of child abuse at former children’s home Haut de la Garenne in 2008.
Today he told the inquiry into historical child abuse in the island of his growing concern there was a top-level cover up.
I was hugely concerned there was a cover up happening in Jersey and I was concerned that a lot of evidence was going missing and that witnesses were being intimidated. There was a clear story emerging in my mind and whilst I may not have used the term paedophile ring, my view there was certainly a culture emerging in Jersey of systematic child abuse.
– Lenny Harper, former Deputy Chief Officer of Jersey’s police
He went on to give examples of times, he claims, officers were pressured to drop investigations: “A former senior detective where his credibility and integrity were questioned by two paedophiles. Others where a police officer on another case alleged that he was obstructed and intimidated throughout the investigation.”
When asked by counsel for the inquiry who was responsible for the alleged cover up, he replied: “It was a group of individuals who were involved in a number of cases. It was the involvement of police officers that concerned me, with allegations by junior officers that led me to believe that some senior officers were involved in the cover up of abuse of children.”
I was told about exhibits in a case disappearing, that officers were not allowed to look at other exhibits, generally speaking exhibits and files were going missing.
– Lenny Harper, former Deputy Chief Officer of Jersey’s police…. http://www.itv.com/news/channel/2016-01-12/police-officers-involved-in-cover-up-of-paedophile-ring-says-former-deputy-police-chief/
Child abuse investigation could have started four years earlier says former Deputy Police Chief
12 January 2016
A former Deputy Chief Officer of Jersey’s police force says officers could have begun their investigation into claims of child abuse at Haut de la Garenne four years earlier than they did.
Lenny Harper is giving evidence to the inquiry into historical child abuse.
Today the inquiry heard Operation Rectangle was originally set up to investigate historical allegations of abuse in Jersey’s Sea Cadets. That happened over a period of years and the team had – at one point – worked with the FBI as part of a global effort to find abusers. Today, Mr Harper explained that line of inquiry hit a stumbling block in 2006….
He went on to say: “Senior officers were ignoring requests for an investigation. There was a decision not to follow up. The request was ignored. There’s no way around it. Even inertia, whether it was too difficult, whether indeed it was malicious, it was still ignored and it was wrong.”
Lenny Harper because the senior investigating officer into allegations about abuse at Haut de la Garenne in early 2008.
When asked if he was the right person to be in charge, he said: “Yes. I think I was able to engender the trust of victims who had mistrust in not only the police but in all of the caring agencies in Jersey…. http://www.itv.com/news/channel/2016-01-12/child-abuse-investigation-could-have-started-four-years-earlier-says-former-deputy-police-chief/
Pope accepts resignation of Australian bishop accused of being evasive at abuse inquiry
Brian Finnegan was accused of not being candid about his knowledge of paedophile priests in a bid to protect himself and the Catholic church
Guardian staff and agencies Wednesday 30 December 2015
An Australian bishop accused of protecting himself and the Catholic church at the child abuse royal commission has resigned.
The pope has accepted Brisbane auxiliary bishop Brian Finnegan’s resignation upon his reaching the retirement age, the Vatican’s press office has announced.
Finnegan, 77, was accused of not being candid about his knowledge of paedophile priests in a bid to protect himself and the church during his December evidence to the child abuse royal commission’s inquiry into the Ballarat diocese.
Finnegan was secretary to the bishop of the Ballarat diocese, Ronald Mulkearns, between 1979 and 1985 when the priest Gerald Ridsdale was abusing children in parishes within the diocese.
Finnegan repeatedly told the commission he was unaware of Ridsdale’s abuse at the time and had no concerns about the priest.
But the commission heard evidence Finnegan had been phoned by a mother who was concerned about Ridsdale’s interactions with her eldest son.
In documents revealed by the commission, Finnigan once described the Mortlake parish where Ridsdale worked as priest in 1981 and 1982 as “a real trouble spot” where there was “drama” around “kids in classes”…. http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/31/pope-accepts-resignation-of-australian-bishop-accused-of-being-evasive-at-abuse-inquiry
Lawmakers Blast Child-Abuse Inquiry on Tax Shelter Jersey Island, 40 percent of women with severe mental illness are victims of rape, attempted rape
September 11, 2014 Comments Off on Lawmakers Blast Child-Abuse Inquiry on Tax Shelter Jersey Island, 40 percent of women with severe mental illness are victims of rape, attempted rape
Lawmakers Blast Child-Abuse Inquiry on Tax Shelter Jersey Island
By Leah McGrath Goodman 9/10/14
Neil McMurray used to be a professional fisherman and crabber—until one of his children was repeatedly bullied in school and he found himself investigating what he began to view as a startling lack of concern for the welfare of children in his tiny island home.
“For the past decade, I have been writing about what I have come to see as a culture of concealment within our government, education and justice systems, which have repeatedly failed the most vulnerable members of our society, particularly children,” says McMurray.
McMurray lives on the island of Jersey, a $2 trillion tax shelter in the Channel Islands. Just 14 miles off the west coast of France, Jersey is part of neither Great Britain nor the European Union but a “Crown dependency”—meaning it is technically accountable to the queen of Great Britain but governs itself.
A 47-year-old married father of two, McMurray launched a humble but highly influential blog, Voice for Children, around the time the island’s police announced in 2008 that nearly 200 people from different parts of the world had come forward to report they had been victims of child predators on the island.
Since then, McMurray has assiduously covered child-protection issues in Jersey, gaining a following that includes global human-rights activists as well as the island’s locals, not excluding Jersey’s chief minister, Ian Gorst. But he has also gathered a good deal of notoriety….
Dubbed Operation Rectangle, the 2008 police investigation into widespread child abuse on the island yielded 151 suspects in Jersey, which is only 5 by 9 miles in size. Of those, 30 are now dead and fewer than a dozen were convicted, sparking widespread outrage from victims and witnesses and creating deep divisions on the island.
During Operation Rectangle, a dig under a government-run Jersey children’s home, Haut de la Garenne, unearthed the remains of children aged 6 to 12, according to a Jersey police press release, which noted that “no people are reported missing” and “there are no suspects for murder.” The probe closed in 2010 under questionable circumstances.
In July, a long-awaited Committee of Inquiry convened hearings in Jersey to investigate whether there may have been a cover-up of decades of atrocities against children. The inquiry stated September 5 that “new witnesses are coming forward all the time, and it is anticipated the hearings will last many months.”….
http://www.newsweek.com/lawmakers-blast-child-abuse-inquiry-tax-shelter-jersey-269447
40 percent of women with severe mental illness are victims of rape, attempted rape
September 3, 2014
University College London
Summary: Women with severe mental illness are up to five times more likely than the general population to be victims of sexual assault and two to three times more likely to suffer domestic violence, reveals new research.
Women with severe mental illness are up to five times more likely than the general population to be victims of sexual assault and two to three times more likely to suffer domestic violence, reveals new research led by UCL (University College London) and King’s College London funded by the Medical Research Council and the Big Lottery.
The study, published in Psychological Medicine, found that 40% of women surveyed with severe mental illness had suffered rape or attempted rape in adulthood, of whom 53% had attempted suicide as a result. In the general population, 7% of women had been victims of rape or attempted rape, of whom 3% had attempted suicide. 12% of men with severe mental illness had been seriously sexually assaulted, compared with 0.5% of the general population….
“The number of rape victims among women with severe mental illness is staggering,” says lead author Dr Hind Khalifeh of UCL’s Division of Psychiatry. “At the time of the survey, 10% had experienced sexual assault in the past year, showing that the problems continue throughout adulthood. Considering the high rate of suicide attempts among rape victims in this group, clinicians assessing people after a suicide attempt should consider asking them if they have been sexually assaulted. Currently this is not done and so patients may miss opportunities to receive specialist support.”
Men and women with mental illness were also found to be more likely to be victims of domestic violence than the general population. Domestic violence includes emotional, physical and sexual abuse. 69% of women and 49% of men with severe mental illness reported adulthood domestic violence.
Domestic violence from family members (other than partners) made up 63% of total domestic violence cases against psychiatric patients compared with 35% of the general population…. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140903204125.htm