JERSEY "SCANDAL": Facebook Campaign Against Jersey Minister

Senator Frank Walker faces mounting pressure to resign

Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2008, by Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter

[ This attempt to bring down the Jersey Chief Minister is reminiscent of Pat Rabbitte's bogus claim about Cardinal Cahal Daly and Attorney General Harry Whelehan in 1994, by which Rabbitte helped to destroy the Fianna Fail/Labour coalition. ***

As a matter of fact the present affair is worse.After all, Father Brendan Smyth really had abused children (although Cardinal Daly and Harry Whelehan were in no way to blame.) Not only is Senator Frank Walker blameless in the Jersey child abuse "scandal" - the scandal itself is bogus!

*** See "False Allegations: Pat Rabbitte and Cardinal Cathal Daly" AND "Pat Rabbitte, Cardinal Cathal Daly and the Fall of the Reynolds Government" both on www.alliancesupport.org in October and December 2006.

Rory Connor
5 March 2008 ]

The chief minister of Jersey is facing mounting pressure to resign in the wake of the island's child abuse scandal, with thousands of people signing up to protest groups on the social networking website Facebook.

Five separate groups calling for the removal of Senator Frank Walker have so far attracted more than 2,000 members, and Mr Walker is likely to face further criticism at a rally being held on Saturday in the island's capital, St Helier, called Time 4 Change.

Mr Walker, who has been in office since 2005, was accused last week of being more concerned with the island's image than the child abuse allegations, after he was overheard accusing a fellow senator of "trying to shaft Jersey internationally" by drawing attention to the problem.

Police have been investigating alleged child abuse at the Haut de la Garenne former children's home in Jersey for more than a year, and so far more than 160 alleged victims have come forward.

The discovery of part of a child's skull buried under a concrete floor in the Victorian building last month prompted fears that children may have been murdered during decades of alleged abuse at the home.
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Excavations will continue for at least another month as police search for more human remains.

Detectives are also investigating claims of an establishment cover-up which had until now apparently allowed the allegations of abuse to remain secret.

Among the Facebook sites dedicated to toppling Mr Walker are the Vote Frank Walker out of the States (Jersey's parliament) group, which has more than 1,000 members, and the Frank Walker Resignation Protest, with more than 500 members.

Another group called Jersey's Frank Walker Should Resign, which has more than 320 members, states: "The Chief Minister, Frank Walker, should resign for his unashamed prioritisation of Jersey's international image over the due process of the justice system for the hundreds of children and young people apparently mistreated, raped and even killed in the Island's care system over the last 70 years."

Haut de la Garenne, the former children's home at the centre of a child abuse inquiry
The organisers of the Time 4 Change rally hope many of the Facebook protestors will join the demonstration in St Helier's Royal Square, where a minute's silence for the victims of abuse will be followed by calls for changes in a political system which, critics say, enables scandals to be swept under the carpet.

Jersey has no political parties and its parliament has been characterised as an oligarchy run by a ruling elite drawn from the world of finance and business.

Montfort Tadier, the 28-year-old organiser of the rally, said: "There has been talk of reform in the past but it has never been taken seriously. But we want to bring an end to the culture that has allowed these events to happen."

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Hundreds Expected To Support Alleged Child Abuse Victims

5 March 2008 icWales

Hundreds of people are expected to attend a rally to support alleged victims of child abuse at a former Jersey care home.

Organisers of the Remembrance Rally said they want to give people on the island a chance to express their ?grief and outrage? over alleged decades of abuse at Haut de la Garenne.

Police investigating the former home said more than 160 people claim they were physically and sexually abused since the 1960s.

Forensic teams searching the site have found human remains buried in a stairwell and a network of secret underground chambers where victims claim they were abused.

A group calling itself Time For Change has organised a rally on Saturday to be held in the Royal Square outside the States of Jersey Government building in St Helier at midday.

The group are expecting hundreds of people to attend and have asked those coming to bring a daffodil to represent a symbol of hope for the future.

Organiser Montford Tadier said the rally will be a chance for the public to show their grief and also for people to voice their feelings about the way the Government handled the abuse inquiry.

Former health minister Stuart Syvret has claimed abuse at care homes was covered up and he has had several televised rows with Chief Minister Frank Walker.

The argument has spilled on to the internet with support groups being set up for both men on social networking sites.

Police have said that they are investigating why a number of people came forward in the past to complain about abuse but the complaints were not handled ?as they should have been?.

Mr Tadier said there is strong support on Jersey for a major change in government in the wake of the Haut de la Garenne case.

He said: ?This is about giving people a chance to show their grief for the victims of the abuse.

?But there are also weaknesses in the Government system and this must never happen again and so things must change.

?A lot of people are angry about the way this was handled.?

Mr Tadier hopes as many as 600 people will come to St Helier to show their support.

The abuse investigation is now threatening to spread to Guernsey after a man claimed he was abused in care homes on both islands.

Carl Denning stayed at Haut de la Garenne until he was 11-years-old before being moved to two care centres on Guernsey.

Mr Denning, who lives in North Wales, claims that not only did he and other children suffer violent attacks while in care but they were covered up.

The 49-year-old father-of-four said: ?There was definitely abuse going on in Guernsey, not to the same level as on Jersey but it was there.

?It wasn?t sexual abuse but it was violent and there were other boys who suffered.

?But no one would listen. I feel like the authorities really didn?t believe what went on.?

A spokesman for the Haut de la Garenne investigation said any reports of abuse on Guernsey would be handled by their police and the forces would work together.

Forensic teams at Haut de la Garenne are working in the first of the underground chambers ? referred to as punishment rooms by victims ? and believe there are three more.

Officers found a bath and a second item, reportedly shackles, in the cellar as well as a trap door and a chilling message written on the wall saying ?I?ve been bad for years and years?.

Work breaking into the second chamber is expected to start next week.

Victims claim they were kept in solitary confinement in the cellars and were drugged, raped and flogged by both staff and other children at the home.