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

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

Satanists Accused of Ritual Killing, Haut de la Garenne sexual abuse cover up, South African girl murdered in satanic killing

– Student faces 15 years in prison for ritual murder
– Satanists Accused of Ritual Killing in Cemetery
– The Journalist Who Was Arrested for Investigating a Pedophile Orphanage
“The Haut de la Garenne children’s home on the island of Jersey….investigation exposed a history of sexual abuse at the orphanage”
– South African girl murdered in ‘satanic killing’; 10 classmates suspended

Student faces 15 years in prison for ritual murder
by Aleksandras Budrys 06/03/2013

An 18-year-old student suspected of committing a ritual murder in the Moscow Region on Walpurgis Night last year faces imprisonment of up to 15 years if proven guilty, regional police said on Wednesday.

The investigation revealed that the student with a 21-year-old accomplice, both of whom practiced occultism, had beaten a man to death with nunchucks at a suburban cemetery on the night of May 1, 2012, and later carved a swastika on his forehead with a knife to shift the blame on skinheads, it said in a statement.

It also revealed that prior to that crime the two performed a ritual act over the body of another man the accomplice killed in 2010 by chopping off his head and placing it on an anthill.
http://themoscownews.com/local/20130306/191304741/Student-faces-15-years-in-prison-for-ritual-murder.html

Satanists Accused of Ritual Killing in Cemetery
06 March 2013  Issue 5083 The Moscow Times

Two self-proclaimed Satanists killed a man they found sleeping in a cemetery and carved a swastika into his head to pass the blame onto neo-Nazis, the Investigative Committee said Wednesday in a statement announcing the completion of the investigation into the May 2012 incident.

The two suspects, an 18-year-old student and his 21-year-old convicted-felon friend, are accused of beating the man with homemade nunchuks and then stabbing him 28 times. Police said the attack was performed in recognition of Walpurgis Night, a witching celebration in Northern and Eastern Europe exactly six months from Halloween.

After the suspects were detained, investigators found that the younger one had been involved in the 2010 killing of a robbery accomplice who cooperated with police. In that case, investigators say, the suspect severed the victim’s head and buried the body in an anthill, only to disinter the body to perform an occult ritual with his friend in April 2012….
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/satanists-accused-of-ritual-killing-in-cemetery/476606.html

The Journalist Who Was Arrested for Investigating a Pedophile Orphanage By Camille Standen
The Haut de la Garenne children’s home on the island of Jersey.

Jersey is an island of around 100,000 people nestled into a cozy nook between Guernsey and the coast of Normandy. It’s mostly been recognized in recent public memory for its potatoes and the fact that it’s basically in France but everyone there speaks English. In 2008, however, small human remains were found at Haut de la Garenne, a former orphanage on the island. A subsequent investigation exposed a history of sexual abuse at the orphanage, tainting the good name of the people of Jersey in the world’s media.

The list of suspects in the case included British government officials and—according to the detective who led the three-year child-abuse probe—media personality Jimmy Savile was also investigated by police, four years before the full extent of his crimes would eventually be exposed. The problem is, because Jersey is self-governing and has its own, slightly unorthodox court system, decades of possible crime against children in the orphanage may remain almost entirely hidden, unexamined, and untried. Since the initial media Mardi Gras, international interest has faded and locals who have continued searching for justice—including bloggers, senators, and police—have been shouted down….

VICE: Hi, Leah. So, when did sexual assault start taking place at Haut de la Garenne, approximately?
Leah McGrath Goodman: We’re not sure how far back it goes, and we’re not sure exactly when it stopped—that’s all still being researched. According to people on the island, there were incidents against children at the home before World War II, but they largely stopped during the Nazi occupation there. So the alleged crimes of physical and sexual violence against children there had been going on for decades. It closed in the late 80s, but my understanding is that a pedophile ring continued to meet there to commit acts of abuse against minors…..

Yeah, it seems a little shady.
What we do know from the law-enforcement officials who conducted interviews in Jersey is that nearly 200 people came forward and that nearly all of them had credible testimonies relating to abuse. We also know there were 151 suspects, 30 of them now dead, 121 still alive, which doesn’t sound that historic to me.

Were any of the suspects convicted?
Seven were brought to justice in Jersey, and four were convicted of physical and/or sexual crimes against children at Haut de la Garenne. During a trial I attended, I saw a victim beg Jersey’s government to bring charges against one of the “priority suspects”, who, as I understand it, still works in a government position in Jersey that exposes him to children every day. Yet nothing has been done.

What are some of the methods the Jersey government are using to cover up the situation?
I’ve seen what I would call a “standard playbook” that comes out whenever they detect a threat: The island’s press and judiciary push to marginalize whoever speaks out—be it police, victims, or the health minister who was in charge at the time—by attacking their credibility and soundness of mind; more or less calling them liars….

What did the health minister do?
Jersey’s then health minister, Stuart Syvret, pushed for a full investigation into Haut de la Garenne in 2008, also known as Operation Rectangle. Before speaking out, he was one of the most popular senators on the island. After speaking out, he found himself under fire, eventually losing his job and being sent to prison—twice—on grounds that I’d consider flimsy. All the while, he was smeared by the island’s only newspaper, the Jersey Evening Post, which is subsidized by the local government and doesn’t hesitate to act as its mouthpiece. Blogs have sprung up accusing the paper of the same thing.

I see.
To this day, if the former health minister speaks out, the paper strikes up, saying stuff like, “Here he goes again with his conspiracy theories and his children being murdered and raped.” That shows the island’s populace that anyone who stands up for victims’ rights will risk the same kind of treatment….

Why do you think they’re so committed to covering all of this up?
If you look at the number of suspects—151—and the number of victims—just shy of 200—identified in the Jersey investigation, you’ll notice two things. First, most of the people involved are still alive. Second, there are a lot of suspects per victim. Some of the “priority suspects” remain in high-level positions in Jersey’s leadership. Some of them have been identified by name by the victims as some of the worst of the abusers. Some of them are in positions in Jersey’s education and health departments, where they have access to vulnerable people and children every day….
http://m.vice.com/read/the-journalist-who-was-banned-from-investigating-jerseys-child-abuse

South African girl murdered in ‘satanic killing’; 10 classmates suspended
Talia Ralph and Erin Conway-Smith March 6, 2013
South African teen Keamogetswe Sefularo was stabbed to death by a fellow classmate.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — A South African teenager was murdered Monday outside Lukhanyo Secondary School near Randfontein by a fellow student, prompting allegations that it was a “satanic killing.”

Seventeen-year-old Kamogetswe Sefularo was stabbed to death in her chest, throat and abdomen by a 15-year-old girl who allegedly drank her blood afterwards, South Africa’s Eye Witness News reported.

A friend of Sefularo’s told her family that “the leader and the girl who did the stabbing sucked Keamo’s blood from [a wound] on her neck,” the victim’s brother Zali Nxabi told News24.

“Her friend even told us that she knew nothing about their cult and that their leader had always been after Keamo’s blood,” he added.

The suspect appeared briefly in court Tuesday, and will remain in custody until her next court appearance on Tuesday next week, according to the Times Live….

GlobalPost senior correspondent in South Africa, Erin Conway-Smith, says that there have been several murders of young people where “satanism” was said to be involved, in the last few years in South Africa.

For example, there is a trial continuing in the murder of 18-year-old Kirsty Theologo who was doused with gas and set on fire in what was described as a satanic ritual.

Another example is the killing of a 6-year-old girl last month in KwaZulu-Natal province; charged in her murder is Wiseman Tholelani Shandu who is said to be part of a satanist group.

A leaked South African police memo from last year said that two detectives per province would receive special training to investigate “harmful occult-related crimes,” according to Conway-Smith.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/south-africa/130306/south-african-girl-murdered-satanic-killing
Girl’s attackers ‘drank her blood’  2013-03-06

Johannesburg – The family of a murdered West Rand schoolgirl have told of their horror at hearing that her murderers had drunk blood from her body after stabbing her.

Keamogetswe Sefularo was stabbed in the neck, chest and stomach but lived long enough to tell her mother who her attackers were, The Times reported on Wednesday.

The murdered teen’s brother, Zali Nxabi, 28, said the family were holding a prayer meeting at their home when a friend of his murdered sister ran into the house and told them that “their leader” had instructed them to kill her. The family recorded the conversation.

“She [the friend] said the leader and the girl who did the stabbing sucked Keamo’s blood from [a wound] on her neck,” said Nxabi.

He said he had heard rumours of satanic activity in the area but never thought it would affect his family.

“Her friend even told us that she knew nothing about their cult and that their leader had always been after Keamo’s blood.”….
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Girls-attackers-drank-her-blood-20130306

‘They killed my sister and drank her blood’
POPPY LOUW  06 March, 2013

Keamogetswe Sefularo’s relatives listened in horror as one of her friends described how her killers drank the blood from her limp body after stabbing her three times.

The 14-year-old’s brother, Zali Nxabi, 28, said his sister’s friend had stormed into their home in Mohlakeng, on the West Rand, on Saturday while the family was holding a prayer meeting.

“We recorded everything she told us and about how they were instructed by their ‘leader’ to kill Keamo.

“She [the friend] said the leader and the girl who did the stabbing sucked Keamo’s blood from [a wound] on her neck.”

Nxabi said he had heard rumours of satanic activity in the area but never thought it would affect his family….
http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/03/06/they-killed-my-sister-and-drank-her-blood