A month on since the attack on a teenager at the Gorey Common bus stop, investigators continue to trawl through evidence. At its height, at least 24 detectives and staff were working on the inquiry, codenamed Operation Hectare, but that has now been reduced to a ‘small team’.
Detective Superintendent Stewart Gull, head of crime services, said ‘it is not possible or necessary’ to maintain the levels of resource but stressed that the police continue to ‘exhaustively follow all leads’.
The force still have a list of 23 ‘persons of interest’ – people they think could hold the key to solving the case – down from 54 just over a week ago. A total of 260 lines of inquiry are still to be pursued and during last weekend alone 15 calls were made to the police.
Officers still want to speak to the driver of a vehicle seen turning around the sharp corner near Gorey Harbour at 11.59pm on the night of the attack.
Det Supt Gull said 275 house-to-house inquiries across Grouville and St Martin had been conducted and suggested the inquiry zone might be extended again.
‘The public continue to provide information, for which we are very grateful. We continue to ask people to do so at the earliest opportunity if they have any information. We know there were people out and about at that time who haven’t yet come forward – we would encourage them to do so,’ said the detective.
The suspect is described as 5ft 9in tall, big and strong with a foreign accent. It is believed the attack took place between about midnight and 12.13am on Friday 1 November.
Questioned as to whether the police believed the suspect might have left Jersey, Det Supt Gull said: ‘It is of course a possibility but JCIS [Jersey Customs and Immigration] and our own Special Branch officers remain fully involved and do not currently believe that the attacker has left via conventional means.’
He added: ‘We have had a number of meetings with representatives from minority groups on the Island and will continue to do so.’ Appeal posters, displayed around the Island, have also been translated into various languages.
The police have so far not disclosed if any DNA evidence has been recovered. In the 1980s, murderer and rapist Colin Pitchfork was sentenced to life for killing and sexually assaulting two women in neighbouring Leicestershire villages. He was the first person to ever be convicted of murder based on DNA evidence and following so-called DNA screening.
Detectives and the Forensic Science Service teamed up at the time and asked 5,000 local men to give blood and saliva samples for DNA. Pitchfork was eventually snared after the police found out that a friend took the DNA test on his behalf.
Asked if a similar screening project could be used in Jersey, Det Supt Gull (pictured below) said the force were working with their ‘forensic service provider’ and were considering ‘all lines of inquiry’.
lAnyone with any information is urged to contact the force on 612612 or 612214, or call Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
