In a seriously damning report, the panel, which sat for 149 days, heard from 200 witnesses and received submissions from 450 others, said that the States ‘proved to be ineffectual and neglectful substitute parents’.
It found that while the Island could keep pace with international finance law, it could not do the same for child legislation.
‘Shamefully’ children were blamed rather than their abusive carers in residential homes and those charged with passing on allegations of abuse failed to do so, the panel said.
In one case, the former head of Children’s Services, Anton Skinner, failed to pass on allegations of abuse, which was described as ‘inexcusable’.
The report paints a terrible picture of cruel and dehumanising regimes in several residential facilities and recommends that Haut de la Garenne be demolished because of the awful memories associated with it.
It concluded, however, that no evidence had been found at the former children’s home to warrant the launching of a homicide inquiry.
Management failures at institutions, including Haut de la Garenne, Les Chênes, La Préférence and Blanche Pierre, were compounded by a lack of political interest in listening to concerns about children’s welfare or doing anything about it.
Centeniers are also heavily criticised for failing to pursue child protection prosecutions ‘robustly’.
The States police were found to be insufficiently resourced to deal with child protection issues.
The panel concluded that former Health Minister Stuart Syvret was right to raise deep-seated and widespread concerns about failings in his department, but it was also found that former Chief Minister Frank Walker did not act in a way that would thwart the child abuse investigation.
