From Michael de Petrovsky.
THE deputy police chief Lenny Harper and his team have done, and continue to do, a first rate, professional job of researching and exposing what may well be the worst cases of child abuse in the history of Jersey.

I, and I’m sure a great number of decent non-power-seeking, nor guilt-ridden, Islanders are heartily sick of the childish sniping and gutter-level attempts to detract from, and besmirch, the good work that is being carried out by Lenny Harper and his colleagues.

Recently, we have been bombarded by fatuous expressions of petulant annoyance regarding the reporting of the now seemingly unimportant piece of material that was once thought to be a piece of a child’s skull and later given a variety of theoretical attributes, all of which are now history and insignificant in the light of the latest finds.

Throughout the investigation, I believe Lenny Harper has done his best to inform us, the public, in the fairest possible way without jeopardising the best path along which to advance in order to bring to justice those that have apparently ruined and destroyed the lives of so many innocent children. Nothing must be allowed to blunt our awareness of the acute misery and lifelong torment, sometimes ending in suicide, caused by those that sought to steal the innocence of a child for the gratification of their own evil, perverted desires.

Every member of the States should, during this unpleasant period of uncertainty, be giving every support to the team that is working on the Haut de la Garenne investigation. For any of their members to criticise is not merely the pot calling the kettle black, it is the quagmire insulting the pressure cooker. States Members have lost us millions in incompetent, fumbling blunders whereas all Lenny Harper has failed to do is adopt the, so called, Jersey Way.  There has been no cover up, no Old Boys’ act, no funny handshakes. The time for that sort of thing is long past and those that seek to retain it have no place in a modern Europe.

It is to be regretted that Lenny Harper is due to retire before he will be able to see the conclusion of the Haut de la Garenne investigation. Were I a member of the States, I would propose the Island make him an offer he could not refuse – a decent-sized bonus to stay on a few months and see the job through.

I guess that would have to be a better investment than a silly banana logo, a million or so wasted on a Bel Royal road muck-up or any number of those similar projects that sent our hard-earned taxes down the proverbial States’ drain.
Le Sellier,
Rue du Rondin,
St Mary.