Jersey Care Homes - Seems Peculiar To Me

Here
and here
and here


I smell a rat! is it just me? Obviously not as Richard Webster, author of the excellent Secret of Bryn Estyn the riveting account of the miscarriage of justice that took place in North Wales Care Homes and left a trail of devastation in it's wake(if you haven't read it yet then get a move on!)also seems to have noticed. Thankfully his eloquence is far superior to mine and probably easier reading but nevertheless after reading the article on the BBC led me to the three further articles in the links at the top of this blog I felt a bit of comment was in order. Looked at as a quartet, these four BBC pieces certainly cry for some thoughtful analysis at least. I am sure Richard will be doing that this very day and to some of us who have retained some healthy scepticism about the latest "House of Paedophile Horror", the announcement that the supposed bones are part of a coconut goes some way to justifying our sceptical stance.

It is hard however to say that this vindicates the thinking, it does not. It just makes it all the more sad that the lessons of past historic investigations seems still not to have been learnt and I foresee more people falsely accused. more ruined lives and whole new round of storytelling for the Media.

Man claims abuse at Jersey home This is a particularly illuminating article in that it manages to imply everything and say nothing. A grand example of what seems to surround this bizarre case, and just another example of where it can all go wrong. A quote from today's article is equally revealing.

In a lengthy statement released on Sunday, States of Jersey Police responded to allegations in a Sunday newspaper that the likely origin of that initial "bone" fragment was purposely kept from the media.

Police say the initial find - whether it turns out to be bone or not - had already been ruled out of their investigation after experts agreed that it dated from before 1940.

They say to highlight its origins would have distracted from their investigation.

The statement goes on to say that the officer in charge of the investigation, deputy chief officer Lenny Harper, "takes full responsibility for the decision to curtail the debate on the item which had already been ruled out of the enquiry and which would have indeed distracted attention from the victims of abuse".

What does that mean? Sounds dodgy and smells rat like. Also, notice the use of the word "victim", before anyone has been found guilty, a trait of historical cases that is such an obvious precursor to miscarriages. With emotive issues such as these the choice of words is important if people are to be found guilty when they are or left alone when they are not.

The outcome of this will be interesting to say the least and I will leave the final word to Brendan O'Neil of the Guardian in his excellent article.