AS police chief Graham Power was suspended from his post pending the results of an inquiry, Senator Wendy Kinnard, who as Home Affairs Minister had political responsibility for the police until last month, when she resigned from office, was nowhere to be seen.

Yesterday’s revelations have raised fresh questions about the timing of her departure. On 21 October she made a statement to the States that she was stepping down ‘on a point of moral conscience and principle’. She said at the time that her decision to go was based on a refusal by the Council of Ministers to discuss a change in the way that judges instructed juries over uncorroborated evidence.

At the time her resignation raised eyebrows among her political colleagues, who found it difficult to believe that she would stand down so quickly and over such a matter. They and others are now asking whether she was looking for an excuse to leave office to avoid taking responsibility for the way the historical child abuse inquiry had been handled.

It is understood that she had been fully briefed about the findings of the work of the new senior investigating
officer, Det supt Mick Gradwell. However, Chief Minister Frank Walker said that he had no reason to suspect that she had resigned for any reason other than that cited. ‘I could only accept her resignation as I have no evidence of any other reason other than the one she gave,’ he said.

Repeated attempts by the JEP to contact Senator Kinnard have proved fruitless, and senior politicians also admitted in private that they had no idea where she was. Yesterday Senator Walker said that he had not been given any indication from Senator Kinnard that anything was wrong with the historical child abuse
inquiry when she was Home Affairs Minister.

He revealed that she had written to him in May saying that ‘on the basis of reports I have seen so far, I am satisfied that best practice has been followed and recommendations are being acted upon.’ The Chief Minister said: ‘I concluded from that that she was herself asking questions and receiving answers. There were things that we simply were not told.’

Senator Walker maintained that he and other ministers had asked questions about the investigation but had been given what now appear to have been inaccurate answers. The Chief Minister also suggested that former deputy police chief Lenny Harper had created an atmosphere in which no real critical analysis of the investigation was possible.

‘If I or Wendy or anyone else had questioned what the police were doing, you know what would have happened,’ said Senator Walker. ‘Lenny Harper would have gone to the media and said that there had been political interference in the investigation.’

The Senator also rejected any suggestion that his BBC TV Newsnight appearance – when he was accused of caring more about Jersey’s international reputation that the victims of abuse – had made it hard for him to speak out publicly about the inquiry. ‘It had no impact on the way that I handled matters after that,’ he said. ‘I am ready to stand up and take full responsibility for whatever I said and whatever I did.’

He added that he did everything that he thought was right at the time and in the circumstances. ‘You cannot do anything other than trust the information you are being given by your two most senior police officers,’ he said.

Home Affairs Minister Andrew Lewis suggested that the actions of Senator Kinnard would be a feature of the inquiry into how things got so out of control. ‘The public deserves to find out why, and that is why we are conducting an investigation,’ he said. ‘We are reviewing the actions of the chief of police. The actions of everyone will be subject to inquiry.’