CHIEF Minister Frank Walker has called for ‘a new liberation’ from the cloud hanging over the Island from the historic child abuse scandal in the traditional Liberation Day States sitting.

On the 63rd anniversary of the Island’s liberation from the occupying German forces, and to a reception of sustained applause, the Senator said that Islanders should never forget how precious the gift of freedom was, and the price that so many paid for it.

And Senator Walker ˆ who described giving the Liberation Day speech to the States as ‘one of the greatest honours a Jerseyman could aspire to’ ˆ hoped that Jersey would soon be liberated again, this time from what he described as the judgment of ‘kangaroo courts’ of the international media that sought to portray the Island as a den of iniquity.

‘In the past few months at Haut de la Garenne and elsewhere we have learned of another, darker side of life which existed in the intervening years between our liberation and today,’ said Senator Walker. ‘A cloud has descended over us all and it is clear that it will not disperse until we have met the challenge it represents.’