LENNY Harper has strongly defended his leadership of the historical child abuse inquiry and says that his handling of the media was vital in bringing victims forward.
The former deputy police chief who headed the historical child abuse inquiry has reacted to claims made yesterday by new deputy police chief David Warcup that some of the information given by the police during the inquiry had been inaccurate.
Asked whether he was completely satisfied with the way he had handled the case, or whether he had let emotion and the momentum of the inquiry, coupled with the media spotlight, affect his judgment, he said: ‘Emotion played no part in it. I am too experienced for that and have too much experience in the front line of policing critical situations.’
Speaking from his home in Ayrshire, Scotland, he added: ‘The momentum of the inquiry was irrelevant. The officers talking to victims did a brilliant job in earning trust and a willingness to assist. The media treatment of the inquiry was vital in bringing victims forward. I did nothing for me’.
He added that no one with any sense could have ever been totally satisfied with their performance and that with hindsight, there were one or two things he might have done differently.
Yesterday the new officer leading the investigation, Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell, told the local and national media that no children were murdered at Haut de la Garenne, that no bodies were hidden or burnt there and that there was no evidence that the 65 children’s teeth had not come out naturally.
The fragment which Mr Harper had described in February as ‘the potential remains of a child’ was neither bone nor human, according to those who examined it, Mr Gradwell added.
Mr Harper responded today by saying that anyone with knowledge of what he had said would have known that he had always maintained that although they were treating the scene as that of a potential homicide, they had no homicide inquiry. He also said that officers claiming yesterday that there had been no murders were saying nothing he had not said before.
Asked if he should have had hard evidence before he made the decision to excavate at Haut de la Garenne, he said that, like everything in the inquiry, it had been intelligence-led.
He said: ‘We not only had statements alleging horrific abuse, we also had intelligence that there were human remains buried there, a local advocate had a client stating that a child was buried there, and an eye-witness statement alleged that an incident had occurred there which must have resulted in a serious injury to a child at least, with the added information that the child was not seen again.’
That had been the reason why they had gone to the UK and met a forensic science organisation, the National Policing Agency in the areas of search, anthropology, archaeology, canine research, and other disciplines, he said.
‘We made the decision to enter and screen the area and the decision to excavate certain areas came as finds were made and information received,’ he added.
Did he regret calling the fragment found on 23 February ‘the potential remains of a child?’ He said: ‘No. It was the potential remains of a child. It has never been identified definitely. The lab who carried out in-depth analysis found collagen in the sample. We have never been told how this came to be. Collagen is only found in mammals, not wood or coconut. Warcup and Gradwell seem to ignore this,’ he said.
Mr Harper said that he was dismayed and disgusted that the police chief, Graham Power, had been suspended over the historic child abuse case. He said he had been an outstanding chief officer for the Island. ‘Before his arrival, the HMI report on the force was highly critical and described an inward-looking and backward force, and he has transformed it, leading to the last two reports being glowing,’ Mr Harper said.
Article posted on 13th November, 2008 - 3.00pm
33 Article Comments
I’m pleased that the JEP has made Lenny Harpers rebuttal front page news as it shows impartiality.
So the public inquiry is complete. We have both sides’ stories and can therefore form our own opinions.
My take on this is that Lenny was a little too keen to speculate but never made inaccurate statements with the information he was given by the specialists on site.
So yes a real PR failure but no dishonesty in what he said
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If he did nothing wrong then why the press conference yesterday then?
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Hear hear. This whole announcemnet is a transparent attempt at character assassination. Lenny Harper acted job with complete integrity in the most difficuly circumstances and despite being subject to immense pressure by the establishment to let things all blow over. It is a disgrace that he and Graham Power are now being made scapegoats just so this story can now be buried.
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Even if Mr Harper was acting in good faith, he still dramatised and sensationalised the whole issue to the press and should have thought about what he was going to say before he blurted out a load of nonsense about dead bodies in a cellar.
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What about all the overtime pay funded by tax payers to investigate the so-called murders? Now we’re told there never was a murder scene!
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“Lenny Harper acted job with complete integrity”, are you having a laugh? He spent Millions of pounds of our money digging up non existant murder victims.
I am pleased a seperate review by outsiders has been made I am pleased he is now being looked into like this.
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Your headline should really read “Harper, I did nothing right” because from the media this is what it is really starting to sound like now.
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You had Ben Shenton saying that his wife thought Lenny Harper was “more like Lenny Henry”. Wouldn’t any reasonable person think the dice was loaded against him (LH) and feel he had to plow his own furrow? In our politicians rude haste to intervene , we may have got exactly what we deservered regadless of what happened at the children’s home.
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Even if such a high profile ‘cover up’ was feasible (which it clearly isn’t) what would be the point? The damage has already been done thanks to the ramblings of Harper and Syvret.
All these two publicity hungry individuals have done is to detract resources away from the main child abuse enquiry and they must take some blame for the lack of prosecutions that have been made so far.
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Lenny Henry is nothing in comparison to some comments I have heard about him of late.
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When it comes to sensationalizing the story, I would suggest it was the tabloid papers that did more in that respect. They embellished the statements Harper made.
Apparentley, 3 ACPO reports were made during the inquiry, making recomendations but as far as I know were not damming.
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Typical Jersey, all of a sudden you need someone to blame. How about blaming the people who abused all of those innocent children in the first place? Everyone seems to have forgotten about them YET AGAIN and started worrying about money, bad publicity, damage to tourism – THE USUAL.
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My god I thought people over here were supposed to be intelligent!! Does this mean that because there were no murders that everything else get forgotten about??If tax payers were so worried about where their money was going and the amount spent in the enquiry maybe they should use those agressions to ensure that the correct practices and duty of care is taken into account for the lives of those who are vulnerable and still suffer because of the inconsistencies in the law and our island, and more fool those who crack jokes and rdicule KARMA you cant defeat the laws of nature
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And how about the thousands of children that were abused who weren’t in a care home – nobody cares about them.
at least this policeman wanted to ensure that no stone was left uncovered – it was the media that blew it out of proportion and if he hadn’t you’d all be whining about there not being enough done about it and our money being spent on steam clocks and toad statues rather than searching for justice.
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LH did say quote. “these teeth could’nt have come out naturally”
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OK Sara, say you were in charge of the investigation. You are told there might be bodies at the home. What do you do. Go there, open a cupboard and say ‘Nothing here’ and clear off.
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there just seems to be so much back stabbing on this rock one man tries to do good and when has given much of his life to serving the people what do some of the people on the rock do back stab him
(LENNY) stay where you are you don’t have to prove yourself to those folks that are close minded
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Mr Harper has always used the words like alleged and potential.He is being blamed for damage to jersey when at the end of the day all he had to go on was lab results.It was the chief minister who was supposed to over see his police department.The public relations of Jersey was made worse by the political statments made at the time.Victims of abuse would never have come forward if it was not for mr Harper but police hands are tied when the prosecuters deside not to charge certain people.Let us hope the victims now get the support they deserve and the guilty are prosecuted without making people scapegoats .
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I fail to see why the police held such a press conference, to what purpose?
How absolutely unprofessional to critise Lenny Harper mid investigation, how absolutely bizarre to offer, as a first option, retirement to Graham Power.
Clearly behind the scenes a lot has gone on that is not in the public domain, so much for the transparency of government!
Lenny Harper did not act alone, his officers had taken statements from the abused the contents of which, I assume, instigated the search of HDLG, clearly there was a dilema – a WHAT IF situation. What if they did not undertake an absolutely thorough investigation, a fingertip search – what if indeed! The Chief Minister pleged an open cheque book for a thorough open and transparent investigation and that is what Lenny Harper tried to deliver.
I understand that his open manner with the media was to encourage the victims to come forward and it worked both for and against him.
I beleive that he acted in good faith and I am sad that he has been used as a scapegoat in such a public manner – who is using the
media now I must ask, and why?
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Totally agree with your comments VIcki.
Whatever mistakes have been made in the enquiry it should not detract from the fact that Jersey has many, many victims of child abuse due to systemic failures in care over several decades. The island should face up to it and endeavour to make sure it could never happen again, instead of the damage-limitation exercise its leaders embarked upon from day one – the attitude that could mean it continuing(?)/happening again. We need leaders not purely businessmen running the island.
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Have you all forgoten about the farce of a case against the Police officer who drove a car that killed a newly married woman. There was a large difference in the way these two cases were handled.
Its about time we had a freedom of information act so we can make our own minds up.
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We have a children’s home which is the subject of abuse allegations by former residents and what these residents say lead the investigators to excavate the area under the present floor of the property. What the investigators find requires further forensic examination. For all of those with the incredible benefit of hindsight let me pose the question ‘what exactly was the investigating team supposed to do? Ignore the allegations, not conduct a thorough investigation on the grounds that the bones might belong to a rabbit or some sort of small primitive dinosaur?
We all know that the press hype up and dramatise events in order to sell copy to the public (us). Therefore whatever Harper or anyone else said at a press conference it would be condensed or screwed around to suit the nature of the media outlet. Unless anyone was actually at every single press conference and listened to the whole event and has verbatim recordings of what was said it is very difficult to comment.
Essentially Harper, Powell et al are damned if they do and damned don’t. What is interesting is this island’s response to the whole affair and there are a number of people who should be very ashamed of themselves. How long before the failure of the tomato industry is blamed on bad publicity from the investigation?
What is alleged to have happened to those children in the care of the people of Jersey is not unique to this island, the treatment of children in care has been open to question all over the UK and in many other countries. Remember if you want to see a tiger you don’t go to the top floor of a multi story car park you go to a zoo. There are people who want to abuse children and they will gravitate to an environment where committing that abuse is easy. These people are in a minority but they did, do and will always exist and have to be guarded against and dealt with. On a positive note there are many who work with children who genuinely care and want to help, equally there are a number who just want a job.
For those it applies to; take a deep breath and stop being so paranoid, no one is picking on Jersey, your problems and skeletons in cupboards are merely a reflection of every other country’s. It is what this island does next which will damn it or otherwise.
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The people that have damaged Jersey’s reputation are the politicians who have created that the perception that Jersey is only worried about potential harm to the finance industry caused by this horrific affair and doesn’t care a fig for the safety and security of vulnerable young children. And believe me that perception does exist, and not just amongst the majority of the press pack that have been over here reporting the story. I can’t see that Harper did anything wrong. He seemed to handle the press well, always gave the impression that he was being open and honest but issued caveats where necessary. Let us not forget that he was operating under the widely held belief that the States would automatically try to cover the story up and had to do all he could to avoid that perception being reinforced so that witnesses could and would come forward. Any damage he may have caused pales into insignificance compared to our Chief Ministers shameful performance on Newsnight. Then, just when the story was dying down, we have a dubiously motivated rehash of the story in a press conference timed to go off just before the Howard League for Penal Reform report and suspension of the Police Chief – for what? Unbelievably inept. The States have now guaranteed global coverage of the story for the next few weeks as Mr. Harper has his say, Mr. Power then has his, new reports are published etc. etc. etc. The way this has been handled is culpably stupid, utterly self-defeating and potentially damaging to future prosecutions. There should be resignations all right, but not the Police Chief.
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I agree with you Bruce Labey! I can think of at least half a dozen resignations that should be tendered but not that of the Chief of Police! Both Mr Harper and Mr Power have done a fantatsic service for the Island and I would like to thank him for it!
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If you were led to believe there were bodies buried would you not authorise an excavation?
Were an excavation not authorised and bodies were found to be buried at a later date how would that make the victims feel?
Who in our world is most guilty of sensationalising and over-dramatising other people’s words?
Doesn’t every inquiry of this sort end up with (rightly or wrongly) people, who have otherwise carried out decades of good service, being made scapegoats?
The States have a lot to answer for, not some individual who seems to just have done his job with the information given to him. The States are destroying this island, but without a political party system bringing with it an opposition party I don’t see how there can ever be change.
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Re: Leah Holmes.
I think the caretaker is asking the very same questions when he told the Police at a very early stage that the bones could be rabbit.
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As Mr.Harper Said ,Collagen is only found in mammals, not wood or coconut.
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I think the Bailiff should now be vindicated for his Liberation Day speech. There is an argument here seeing as Harper has been proved as an exaggerator to the media.
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Lenny Harper told the truth ? Maybe, but its the sensasional self inflating twist he put on it when giving press interviews that did the damage to everyone, victims included (think how defence lawyers are going to use this fiasco )
If he had kept his mouth shut and got on with the investigation (to which he is obviosly able )we would all be praising him now.
He has bought himself, the States of Jersey Police and the Island into disrepute.He has caused the suspension of a coleage and posibly the resignation of a politician.
And still the man keeps opening his mouth to the media.
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It appears as if there are a lot of people scratching around for obscure reasons to denigrate Lenny Harper. It is possible to search archive articles on this site and having done so I have checked numerous articles written by the JEP quoting Harper. Each quote contains clarifications and qualifications quite plainly downplaying forensic finds at the Hostel including alluding to the fact that some of the finds might be rather old, predating the enquiry period. Is not Harper’s real ‘crime’ being unfortunate enough to be the Chief Investigating Officer of an enquiry which would by its very nature bring embarrassment and shame on Jersey, quite frankly I can find not much else that he has done ‘wrong’.
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People will support Lenny Harper no matter what. Leave them to it.
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Out of his depth.
Over-promoted.
Unwise pronouncements.
And a record of rabid pursuit of offenders.
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I think Censored has a point about the Bailiff now being vindicated. He based his liberation speech on hysterical media coverage which we have now learnt was brought upon by very bad policing.
How many politicions have attacked the Bailiff for now getting it right?
They should be apologising.
As for Lenny Harper. He should be brought back and put in front of a disciplinary board .
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