THE former deputy chief of the States police, Lenny Harper, who, until recently, led the child abuse inquiry centred on Haut de la Garenne, has reiterated his claim that obstacles have been placed in the way of the investigation.

Specifically, Mr Harper, who now lives in retirement in Scotland, says that, in addition to certain political objections to the international furore the investigation has spurred, the Island’s legal system and its designated advisers have been a barrier to the satisfactory progress of child abuse cases.

These are serious charges which must be examined with great care – as must Mr Harper’s motivation for repeating them. It is, to begin with, likely that his perception of the entire affair is tainted by deep frustration. In February he broke news of the investigation at Haut de la Garenne to the world. Since then, more than 100 complainants have come forward with their accounts of what happened at the former home. As a result, tens of individuals have been in the frame for allegedly criminal activity of the most abhorrent nature. Unfortunately, in terms of persons charged and brought before the courts, the results have as yet been meagre.

If we look at the most basic arithmetic of the case, only two individuals connected with Haut de la Garenne are currently being dealt with and they have been charged and taken to court. Another individual who has nothing to do with the former home has also been charged and taken to court. In addition, two people accused of physical abuse have been released without charge and the alleged offences of another couple and an individual are still being considered – again with no connection to the former home.

These, we are informed, are the only cases which have so far landed on the Crown Officers’ desks – which would seem to allow little scope for delay on a grand scale or any other official muddying of the waters. The papers concerning any other potential arraignments must, presumably, still be lodged with the police, who – no doubt for the best of reasons – are themselves taking a long time to produce results.

Meanwhile, on the political front, it is all too easy to confuse the legitimate desire to protect Jersey from the hysterical assertion that we are an island of abusers and cover-up merchants with wilful intervention in the processes of law. Foolish things have been said and the public relations exercise has been handled badly, but the notion that there is a high-level conspiracy to conceal and deceive is absurd for the simple reason that there is no evidence whatsoever to support this view.

In addition, the Island’s new deputy police chief, David Warcup, has emphatically denied that there is any rift between the police and the legal authorities.

But, alas, we come down to an awful fact when we consider why Mr Harper remains so eager to press his allegations of ‘old boy network’ impediments to the course of the investigation. He – and we – have been made aware of children’s teeth, charred bones, shackles and other evidence of possible gross atrocities at Haut de la Garenne. In the continuing – and puzzling – absence of full forensic results, what is so far missing are the how, the who, the when and the why of this gruesome silent testimony.

This is disturbing and disquieting for those intimately caught up in the inquiry – as it is for the rest of innocent Jersey – but Mr Harper’s contributions from afar are doing absolutely nothing to help the situation or move the inquiry forward.