SENIOR police officers now in charge of the historical child abuse inquiry have given their reassurance to complainants that getting justice for them is their main priority.

Speaking at a press conference held at police headquarters today, the new Deputy Chief Officer of the States police, David Warcup, said that although they were ruling out the murders of children or the burial or burning of their bodies having taken place at Haut de la Garenne, that in no way affected their determination to bring anyone guilty of abusing children there to the courts.

He said: ‘Complainants remain central to the investigation. To them and to any witnesses still to come forward my message to them is clear. None of the statements we are making today questions our absolute commitment to the full and thorough investigation of complaints which have been made with the aim of uncovering the truth and bringing anyone responsible for offending to justice.’

With that in mind, he said he had recently met some of the members of the Jersey Care Leavers Association and had given them a similar reassurance about the commitment of the investigative team to the case. Mr Warcup said that he believed that the five months of excavations at Haut de la Garenne had caused the loss of a lot of time in the historical child abuse inquiry, but that he and the new senior investigating officer, Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell, had now returned the full focus back on it.

The deputy police chief said that he had every confidence in the team working extremely hard on the case in their search for the truth and to bring offenders to justice. Mr Warcup said he wanted to reassure the public that, following comments made earlier in the inquiry about the relationship between the investigation team and the Law Officers department, they were working in a positive way together.

‘It’s a fact that lawyers do work with investigators on serious and complex inquiries. There is no evidence whatsoever which would support any assertion that they should not have been directly involved in the inquiry, nor is there any evidence that they have obstructed it,’ he said.

He added: ‘I would suggest that excluding them from evidence has led to delays in the investigative process.’
Mr Warcup said that he was very confident that he and Mr Gradwell had put proper arrangements in place and there was now a very effective working relationship between the two agencies in operation.

• Picture: Nearly 30 members of the local and national press attended this morning’s conference at police headquarters. Picture by Matthew Hotton (00600697)