THE three detectives who have been mostly involved in the historical child abuse inquiry are the current Jersey deputy police chief, David Warcup, the current senior investigating officer, Det Supt Mick Gradwell, and the former Jersey deputy police chief Lenny Harper.

DAVID WARCUP
David Warcup took up the appointment as Jersey’s deputy police chief in August following a 32-year career in the Northumbria police.

With the appointment, he became the strategic leader of the ongoing historical abuse inquiry in the Island. During his career Mr Warcup worked for several months on the Yorkshire Ripper case and the Lockerbie terrorist inquiry. This year he was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Before taking up his latest post, Mr Warcup was deputy chief constable of the Northumbria police. He joined that force as a constable in July 1976 and became a sergeant in 1985 and an inspector in 1989. He was promoted to chief inspector in 1992 and worked as an area commander as superintendent in March 1994.

After serving as assistant chief constable in the Northumbria police, he became deputy chief constable in June 2005. In that role he oversaw 4,000 police officers and 2,370 police staff and a budget of £287 million a year.

During his career in the Northumbrian police Mr Warcup has undertaken posts in the serious crime squad, territorial command and head of operations. He also led many murder inquiries and had strategic responsibility for previous child abuse cases.

He graduated from the strategic command course in 2000, holds a Master’s degree in business administration and a post-graduate diploma in management studies and criminology in police studies. A visiting fellow of Northumbria University, he has lectured there on leadership and strategic management.

As Jersey’s deputy police chief, Mr Warcup also has responsibility for personnel, training and professional standards, as well as being the leading officer on diversity and equal opportunities.

MICK GRADWELL
DETECTIVE-superintendent Mick Gradwell took over as senior investigating officer of the historical child abuse inquiry in September.

When his appointment was announced the States police described him as one of the UK’s most experienced senior detectives. Before he came to the Island on a year’s secondment, Mr Gradwell was serving on the major investigation team with the Lancashire police, where he was the senior investigating officer.

He has extensive experience of major and complex inquiries, and was the senior investigating officer for the 2004 Morecambe Bay drowning incident which involved the deaths of 23 illegal Chinese immigrants while they were gathering cockles. For work in partnership with agencies on this case including the Crown Prosecution Service he received the Justice Shield and was personally thanked by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

This was followed by a two-year international investigation which led to the conviction of three people for manslaughter and other offences. ore recently, he led the investigation into the murder of Sophie Lancaster, ho was beaten to death after being taunted for being a Goth.

Mr Gradwell’s father was a police officer in Blackpool, so when he joined the force at the age of 19 he had to be stationed in Blackburn. In his early career he found himself policing challenging and high-profile events, including the miners’ strike, football hooligan clashes and the Toxteth riots.

He then gained a wide experience in policing and as head of CID departments in Blackburn and Blackpool it was his responsibility to build links with the ethnic communities. The skills he gained in working with ethnic communities was sought following the recent murder of two Chinese students when the senior investigating officer came to the Island to seek Mr Gradwell’s advice on how to work closely with the Chinese community.

Another responsibility he was given was to improve relations with Blackpool’s gay and lesbian community. In 2006 Mr Gradwell won the Justice Shield, the highest national criminal justice award. He has also worked to improve links with foreign governments and travelled to Tbilisi in Georgia in relation to the issue of the torture and deaths of people while in custody.

LENNY HARPER
LENNY Harper was born and educated in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He spent three years in the RAF police before joining the Metropolitan police in 1974, where he served until 1990 in both uniform and CID in each rank up to and including detective inspector.

His experience during that time included working on the robbery squad, the central cheque squad and the divisional crime squad. During his final year he was transferred to the specialist operations task force at New Scotland Yard – a time when he investigated international and organised crime.

While serving with the Metropolitan police Mr Harper was the investigating officer on a large number of murders and other serious crimes and received four commendations for his detective ability.

He was seconded to the Royal Ulster Constabulary as a detective sergeant between July 1979 and February 1980, when he worked in West Belfast on a number of criminal and terrorist investigations and was commended for good police duty.

In 1991 he joined the Strathclyde police in the promoted rank of chief inspector, and during his 11 years there his service included being head of policy and development, uniform operations, deputy head of the traffic department and deputy commander of Glasgow (East) division. He was promoted to superintendent in 1995.
In 2002 he took up the post as head of operations in the States of Jersey police force and the following year was appointed deputy police chief.

During his police career Mr Harper obtained an MSc in criminal justice studies and an upper-second-class BA honours degree in government and politics.