Abuses of office and democracy

However, related documents which have also been made public tell additional stories of profligacy and then of disturbing misconduct in an area unrelated to Haut de la Garenne which simply beggar belief.

It is now apparent that as well as hopelessly botching the largest police inquiry that this Island has ever seen, the former deputy chief of the States force, Lenny Harper, had a taste for the high life which cost taxpayers inordinately large amounts of money. It seems that Mr Harper thought that entertaining himself and others lavishly at some of London’s best restaurants was in some mysterious way an integral part of the investigation.

This largesse was in itself highly questionable, but as independent consultants BDO Alto have reported, it was further tainted by dubious practices. The consultants say that efforts were made to ‘disguise the total quantum of individual meal costs’. They also point out that, in contravention of force rules, no record was kept of who actually attended what were ostensibly business dinners.

No one has been accused of fraud, but BDO Alto do not mince their words in saying that these practices were entirely unacceptable. In addition, what happened troubled some of the officers present to such an extent that they were later at pains to express their own concern that bills were split to camouflage exactly what had been spent and about the limited amount of business conducted at the dinners.

That large amounts of public money were squandered in an inquiry which, ultimately, proved not to involve child deaths and has led to a mere handful of prosecutions is guaranteed to rankle, but matters of even greater importance are addressed in the independent report on Operation Blast.

Blast was the secret compilation of police dossiers on States Members, an undertaking which, it has emerged, was the initiative of police chief Graham Power, even though he had been instructed not to engage in such activity. His decision to disregard that political directive has, as Home Affairs Minister Ian Le Marquand points out, frightening implications.

Mr Power might merely have blundered into the world of secret dossiers without considering the police-state character of his action. Nevertheless, the episode provides further evidence that the top echelons of the force were making their own rules and, through lack of a much-needed police authority and the weak political leadership of Senator Le Marquand’s predecessor, former Senator Wendy Kinnard, were operating beyond democratic control. We must be grateful that this almost incredible situation has been exposed, and vigilant in ensuring that it can never happen again.