Let’s just remind ourselves of the events of 2008 by picking a random BBC News headline from 31 July 2008. One headline said: ‘Remains of at least five children aged between 4 and 11 have been found in the search of a former children’s home in Jersey, police have said.’
I was a critic of the sensationalism of the police’s child murder claims at that time, but not a critic of the investigation into abuse, and the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry Report correctly states that I had no wish to interfere with the core child abuse inquiry.
The day before the suspension of former Police Chief Graham Power – a neutral act while investigations could be undertaken – I attended a small presentation at police headquarters.
A Metropolitan Police Report was quoted from and it showed how the Island had been ‘stitched-up like a kipper’ with regard to the murder allegations.
I listened to the report, and when Deputy Lewis said during the in-camera debate that he had ‘read an alarming report from the Metropolitan Police’ I did not think anything of it, for so had I. And what of PPC, the States body charged with standards?
In 2010 they were advised by ex-Deputy Bob Hill that their disciplinary procedures were not human rights compliant. They appear to have found Deputy Lewis guilty without any real diligence or thorough investigation.
Furthermore, during the in-camera debate he was speaking as Minister for Home Affairs, corporation sole, rather than in a personal capacity. Surely any disciplinary investigation should be under the Ministerial Codes of Conduct procedures, which are overseen by the Chief Minister, not PPC.
Even the eminent QC of the childcare inquiry seems to have over-looked this important fact when implying that Deputy Lewis was speaking in a personal capacity, which he was not. It was, therefore, as much the responsibility of his department, Home Affairs, to clarify matters as it was his – especially as he left the political arena shortly after his speech.
Deputy Lewis currently heads the only government body (the Public Accounts Committee) that can officially examine the legal costs of the Inquiry.
I wonder what this whole saga really is all about, as it has nothing to do with childcare and nothing positive can come of it.
