AS early as 24 hours after what was called ‘the potential remains of a child’ were discovered at Haut de la Garenne police were told by forensic archaeologists that it probably pre-dated the inquiry.
However, Lenny Harper, who was then leading the historical child abuse inquiry, did not make that information public at the time. News of the early doubts about the lack of any significance of the fragment to the inquiry comes against the background last week of the new team leading the investigation announcing that there were no child murders or any bodies hidden or burnt at Haut de la Garenne.
The company, LGC Forensics, who provided forensic archaeologists at the site, have taken the unusual step, with the agreement of the police, of issuing a statement saying that this fragment was one of a number of samples uncovered whose origin could not be satisfactorily determined without detailed scientific testing.
‘We discovered it on 23 February and the following day we advised the police investigation team that it was in an archaeological layer from before the 1940s and, to this extent, it would appear to have been beyond the parameters of the investigation,’ the statement said.
More detailed testing by a specialist laboratory to date the fragment was commissioned by the investigation team and the results fed back to them. These results indicated that the fragment was too degraded for dating and they were informed of this on 9 April.
By this time, changes in the appearance of the fragment reinforced their view that it was not of human bone, and they had confirmed that it related to the earliest phase of building on the site — dating back to Victorian times.
‘Certainly from this point onwards, we believed that the fragment could no longer be regarded as having any potential significance to the investigation. This was clearly stated at the time,’ the statement added.
It was on 17 March that the police said that the fragment might date from the 1920s at the earliest and that archaeologists working on the site said it was possibly no more than 90 years old, although carbon tests were still being carried out.
Three weeks later, police announced that tests to date it were likely to remain inconclusive. Pressed by the JEP on 18 April, Mr Harper and the team confirmed that the fragment could have been placed there in the Victorian period. Det Supt Mick Gradwell, now leading the inquiry, said last week that as early as 31 March Dr Tom Higham from the Oxford Carbon Accelerator Unit had told the States police that he believed that the item found was not bone.
Some time later, he had sent a letter to the States police informing them that he and a scientist from the British Museum had concluded that the fragment was not bone and more likely to be a seed casing like a small piece of coconut.
LGC said that they had worked on the site to internationally accepted procedures and that preliminary and confirmed findings had been continuously and promptly reported to the police.
• Picture: Lenny Harper
Article posted on 17th November, 2008 - 2.59pm
12 Article Comments
Mr Harper probably acted in good faith in order to bring child abuse to justice. However, the drama which unfolded before the press is not justified and to refer to remains in a cellar as homicide before obtaining all the facts and evidence was totally absurd!
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So that’s an independent forensic company and the UK police who both say that Harper was wrong with absolutely no reason to help our so called ‘corrupt’ members of the states in a cover up…
So much for the conspiracy theorists!
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Yet do we live in a society which on finding milk teeth, with roots, which couldn’t have fallen out before death sees nothing wrong? Jersey must have, or had, some perverted mind that removed and collect the teeth of dead children.
Well done Mr Harper
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OK – So how are the police going to pay compensation to the many businesses who have been affected by this debacle, whilst the States get ready to pay compensation to the unfortunate victims?
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Police knew of doubt over ;child bones’ after day one………and your point is, perhaps you consier they should have pulled out there and then and not conducted a thorough examination?
I think it prudent to bear in mind that the investigation was not started to releive boredom or fritter away tax payers money – the investigation started because of witness evidence.
Clearly the authourities had reason to beleive that homicide may have taken place at that site and I beleive that they were duty bound to carry out a thorough search. I think I am right in stating that Lenny Harper has confirmed that he manipulated the media in a deliberate attempt to encourage people who had resided at haut De La Garenne to come forward. Lenny Harper is not an enemy of the people of this island, so why demonise him?
The media seem to forget that there are victims in this whole sorry saga whose hope of justice and closure seems to be ebbing away day by day.
How they must be despairing at the recent turn of events, it appears that the people that were preared to listen to them have fallen on their swords, Stuart Syvret was first to go, then Wendy Kinnard followed by Graham Power Meanwhile Lenny Harper has his name drawn through the mud by various hacks and the actual villians of the piece must be anticipating a knock at the door. If the underlying issue was not so tragic this really has all the makings of a Jersey farce.
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Why did Graham Power remain silent over the entire course of Harper’s investigation? It was plain that sooner or later, the train would hit the buffers.Even an Oxford University graduate of some proven intellect, must have realised that something was amiss at a very early stage.Yet he did nothing. Why ? Was he constrained in some way ?
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Phil you dont no what the people have been through
they were victims of the government that did not look after them .
I do feel our government now is doing what they can to help we should all be supportive , and i think businesses in this matter are not as important . What happen a haut de la garenne WAS AWFULL , am more than happy as a taxpayer to help this people to give them full support i don’t think we should give any compensation to any businesses as evryone been affected , the victims are the ones we should focus on .
Not personal just din’t like your comments.
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The whole Lenny Harper debacle now stinks. They should bring him back to answer these allegations.
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As the person who tried to be a voice of reason at the JDA political rally in the Royal Square earlier this year which was heavily disguised as a meeting in support of child abuse victims, and as the person who when interviewed by BBC Southwest TV afterwards coined the much used phrase “Hijacked by those with their own political agenda”, I will resist the temptation to say “Told you so”.
Fundamental errors were made at the outset of police investigations which once initiated set the unstoppable ball rolling in this expensive fiasco:-
1) Police media appeals for historical victims to come forward were an open invitation in these days of “Compensation Culture” particularly as prominently mentioned was the fact that the Islands’ official records of children in care at that time were incomplete! Talk about an open invitation on behalf of the Jersey taxpayer to please feel free to sue me!And as the BBC is fond of portraying all Islanders as tax evading multi millionaires we enjoyed little press sympathy!
2)There was also no attempt to explain what constituted “Abuse” under the Law at the time of the alleged offences, or how that might differ from a definition in today’s more enlightened times.
3)There is no doubt in my mind that the role of Senator Syvret in all this has been “Questionable” in the extreme.
Let’s not go there but his personal and internationally reported attacks on the senior members of the Island’s Judiciary whilst failing to explain adequately his own shortcomings whilst minister responsible for childcare must go down as one of the finest examples of political hypocracy since Pontious Pilate washed his hands! His subsequent reinvention of himself as “Champion of the Abused” has done nothing to help any genuine victim’s case.
3)Mr Harper’s role? Well a book was mentioned at one point, possibly not by him, although I have the nagging suspicion that the only restraining factor here would have been that a publisher might have suggested “I found a lovely piece of coconut” as a title!
I believe that Mr Harper was relying on what are sadly now referred to as old fashioned values of honesty and fair play in his dealings with the media.Once the ball was rolling he was very soon well out of his depth and local authorities were unable to intervene to help without being branded as part of a cover up!
4)Just a word of advice to the civil servants in the States Press unit. Don’t let your General lead from the front! It didn’t work for Gordon of Khartoum or Col H Jones, and once your leader has been eliminated everyone else is just fire-fighting!In this case it was the Bailiff who had to try and play the voice of reason at risk of compromising his Judicial role.
5)We should thank our stars that no one had a bulldozer of sufficient size available or the States would now proudly possess a £2.5mn heap of granite and concrete!
We all need to get behind a genuine investigation of legitimate child abuse claims in this case, even though it may now prove impossible to bring the guilty to justice.If it is any consolation to genuine victims, I have found there is a lot of truth in the old adage “What goes around, comes around” eventually.
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The only way you can work out if a claim of abuse is genuine (and in my experience the vast majority of abuse claims are true) is to actually investigate the claim in the first place. If the investigation is properly conducted then you will either have enough evidence to prosecute or not as the case may be. One point to remember and is very important; not having enough evidence to prosecute does not mean that the allegation is false. Talking of compensation culture creates a presumption against the alleged victim which is not really fair. As for media appeals for victims to come forward; how else are the police to proceed?
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Nick, these ‘old fashioned values’ of Lenny Harper cost you and I a hell of a lot of money.
That argument does not wash, in fact it is totally unprofessional.
As for the ‘rally in the Royal Square’ in the Spring, that was nothing but a cheap political stunt by some wannabe politicions.
I stick by my guns. Bring Harper back, and put him in front of a Police Hearing and ask him why he did what he did.
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Something fishy did go on at haut de la garenne and it warranted a full investigation due to the teeth found and the statements made. As for the march in the square I didn’t think it was a political stunt at all, speaking as someone who was abused as a child (and abused by our justice system 10 years later)i felt the rally was a great thing at the time for giving victims support and encouragement to come forward.
For those saying they went to haut da le garenne and nothing happened to them – nothing happened to most of the kids at vic college so are you saying that abuse didn’t happen? Just because you had a great childhood doesn’t mean that other kids that you were living with in care didn’t – abused children are VERY good at hiding it.
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