Posts tonen met het label Jersey/Guernsey. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label Jersey/Guernsey. Alle posts tonen

vrijdag, januari 15, 2016

Lenny Harper tells Jersey Care enquiry corrupt police were not charged vs Jersey former chief minister says 'no abuse cover up'

BBC 
15-1-2016

There was no conspiracy to hide abuse allegations in Jersey, according to a former chief minister.
Frank Walker, who led the government during the police investigation into historical abuse allegations, has been giving evidence at the care inquiry.
Previous witnesses accused Mr Walker of trying to influence the original investigation.
He flatly denied the claims, saying he gave his full support to the police investigating the accusations.
The chief of police at the time of the investigation, Graham Power, was suspended and his deputy, Lenny Harper, retired amid criticism of his handling of the investigation.
The Health Minister at the time, Stuart Syvret, was also ejected from his government post after raising his concerns publicly.
While giving evidence, Mr Walker rounded on Mr Syvret, saying the former Senator's public outbursts did not help children because they undermined potential prosecutions.
He said: "If Stuart Syvret had approached me it would have set alarm bells ringing. It never happened.
"It was a totally inappropriate way to bring this into the public domain. He could and should have come to me in the first instance, probably with his Chief Officer.
"Why, after eight years of being in charge of this department, didn't he use this arena to bring forward these amazingly sensitive issues."
Mr Walker said Lenny Harper had falsely led the media to believe murders had taken place at Haut de la Garenne. And he said Mr Harper's superior officer, the Police Chief Graham Power, had allowed him to get out of control.
Mr Walker said when abuse allegations came to light, the States publicly announced it would support the police in making sure no stone was unturned and he told the panel that is exactly what it did.

12-1-2016
BBC
Police officers sold prescription drugs to prostitutes for sex and put pornographic films on computers bought with police budgets, but were not charged, it has been claimed.
Former police chief Lenny Harper told the Jersey Care inquiry he submitted files against officers in 2007, but the attorney general did not charge them.
He said one officer pointed a gun at another's head but was not sacked.
The States of Jersey Police declined to comment on the claims.
Lenny Harper, who was appointed deputy chief officer of the force in 2003, told the inquiry there were approaching a dozen suspects who had been arrested and files were presented to the Law Officers Department but they were not charged by the attorney general.

Children were 'loaned out'

He said the police took possession of computers senior members of the IT Department "had bought on the police budgets with pornographic films on the computers and no charges were ever brought against them".
He told the inquiry he could also remember at least four cases in which officers who had been suspended by the States of Jersey Police (SOJP) were reinstated by the States of Jersey.
He said he did not recall making a complaint himself to the attorney generals officer about the alleged failure to charge corrupt officers because it was the job of the head of operations to oversee daily police work, though he said lawyers working in the attorney general's office were approached by other police officers.
Mr Harper, who led a two-year long police investigation starting in 2006 into historic child abuse in Jersey, also gave evidence about "a culture emerging in Jersey of systematic child abuse" which was "far worse" than a single paedophile ring.
He said: "Children were in effect being loaned out to people taken on yachting trips" and there were allegations of abuse taking place outside of territorial waters which were not dealt with properly by the police.


zondag, september 12, 2010

Bethany Home: 200 in unmarked graves and 28 unaccounted for


In a review of a book entitled The Irish Establishment 1879-1914, by Fergus Campbell, Oxford University Press in the online Dublin Review of Books the reviewer makes these comments in reference to a prominent churchman who had responsibility for overseeing the Bethany Home in the 1920s:

"Single mothers and their “illegitimate” children were separated from their families and community, before being separated from each other. At the 1928 annual meeting of the Bethany Home the Rev H Watson said, “if they had not the home, the children would be sent out into the world with the brand of Cain”. The Bethany Home (sometimes “House”) in Dublin appeared to cater solely for Protestant single pregnant women and their “unwanted” children. It was, according to Kurt Bowen’s definitive study of the Church of Ireland in southern Ireland, “the major facility for Protestant women in need of institutional care”. It was a residual product of the efforts of the ICM to evangelise Ireland, but served also to illustrate how, post-independence, the religiously committed in both communities were permitted to define the boundaries of sexual activity and then to police “offending” women, who were left to cope with the consequences."
The book reviewer notes that protestant and catholic attitudes to social-sexual morality in Ireland were virtually the same during the 19th century and up to the 1970s.



Irish Independent
Edel Kennedy and Ralph Riegel
11-9-2010

The bodies of 28 of the children who died in care at a Protestant-run children's home are unaccounted for.

And former residents are now planning to initiate legal proceedings against the Education Minister if they are not included in the State Redress Scheme.

The Irish Independent has learned they have set an October deadline for inclusion after evidence emerged that more than 200 children who died in the Bethany Home in Rathgar were buried in unmarked graves.

If this deadline passes, they will initiate High Court proceedings.

Former resident Derek Leinster said his upbringing was "impoverished beyond belief" and he is now seeking to be included in the scheme.

"They (the State) should do what they did for the Catholics," he said.

"They should apologise to the minority groups for their neglect of their duty of care for their citizens.

"Without being included (in the Redress Scheme) none of us can go forward. People like me and others like me have a right to have our cases reviewed by the minister."

Meanwhile it emerged yesterday that the bodies of 28 of the children who died in care are unaccounted for.

Niall Meehan, head of Journalism at Griffith College Dublin, revealed there were at least 219 infant deaths at the Bethany Home in Rathgar, Dublin, over a 47-year period after he widened his trawl of cemetery records.

It had initially been believed there were 40 children buried in unmarked graves in Mount Jerome Cemetery.

Bethany Home was a combined children's home, maternity home and detention centre for female convicts that closed in 1972.
Mr Meehan discovered that at least 219 were buried in Mount Jerome between 1922 and 1949 -- and a further 28 elsewhere.

He said the additional 28 children emerged after comparing cemetery records with those held by adoption agency PACT in relation to the home.

Records

"The organisation that holds the records wouldn't give them to me," said Mr Meehan.

"But they did finally agree to give me figures of how many died in any given year. I cross-referenced those with the numbers in Mount Jerome and 28 are unaccounted for."

Mr Meehan also discovered that eight more babies are buried in Mount Jerome (29) than were reported internally (21) to Bethany's managing committee.

Almost 40pc of 219 child deaths between 1922-1949, occurred in one five-year period from 1935-39.

Additionally, 54 children died from "convulsions", 41 from "heart failure", 26 from "marasmus", a form of malnutrition and seven from "delicacy".

Documents unearthed by Mr Meehan show that in January 1939 the deputy chief medical adviser, William Sterling Berry, visited the home and reported it "much improved since my last inspection".

He also reversed findings of neglect against Bethany nurse mothers in Monaghan.

The following October Mr Sterling Berry returned and rationalised increased sickness and mortality by saying: "It is well recognised that a large number of illegitimate children are delicate ... from their birth and if removed from constant medical supervision and nursing attention often quickly deteriorate."

Mr Meehan added: "The State did little or nothing about reported increases in illness and mortality during the 1935 to 1939 period, though it was brought to the attention of the Dept of Local Government and Public Health by its own inspectors.

"The Government knew the facility was insufficient and did nothing concrete to remedy it."

Tanaiste Mary Coughlan described the reports as "very upsetting" and said she would be discussing the issue with Justice Minister Dermot Ahern.

She said the Government took the issue very seriously but it had to base any decisions on the historical facts.

Labour TD Joe Costello has called for a "full scale inquiry" into the matter.

zondag, augustus 23, 2009

Jersey Haut de la Garenne, 't stinkt. Nog steeds.

W A L G E L I J K !

Aantoonbaar feit:
Ná de eerste veroordeling van de week, is er weer eentje veroordeeld.
Da's winst.

Maar nog steeds: 't stinkt!
En een belangrijke vraag hierbij, en niet alleen voor Jersey, is waar en hoe.
Heksenjacht of doofpot? Hoe en door wie dan?
Beiden schaden de belangen van de overlevers. En vooral dát stinkt heel ernstig.
Het maakt overlevers hernieuwd tot slachtoffers.

Wat schiet je uiteindelijk op met een vent, desnoods die 3, in een gevangenis zolang er nog steeds geen duidelijkheid over heksenjacht of doofpot is, maar na misbruik gevolgd door jaren doofpot nog steeds die zelfde vraag blijft?
Dan is er een veroordeling, maar nog steeds géén recht(spositie).
Je wordt nog steeds gebruikt.

Er is geen rechtspraak die ooit slachtoffers recht kan doen; terug kan geven wat ontstolen werd.
Maar rechtspraak die die vraag over heksenjacht of doofpot overeind houdt is verkrachting van iedere vorm van (rechts) bescherming.
Het ontbreken van die bescherming kenden de slachtoffers al. Dat hebben ze al bovengronds gehaald.
Daar zijn, zeker sinds Australie, Canada en de Ryancommissie als rk tegentegenhanger, dit soort operette-opvoevoeringen niet langer voor nodig.

Die duidelijkheid is niet slechts van belang voor de slachtoffers van Haut de la Garenne.
Maar ook elders.
Hoe de doofpotten werkten begint steeds duidelijker te worden.
Nu de heksenjachten-duidelijkheid!!

Ook daarop, zoals Ierland ook laat zien, hebben slachtoffers en overlevers hun antwoord(en) te vinden. Dat kan niet gedelegeerd worden aan een overheid, een rechtssysteem of een samenleving (of een kerk) die heeft bewezen haar verantwoordelijkheden niet te nemen.
Die antwoorden kunnen alleen slachtoffers/overlevers vinden.
Gezamelijk, voor ieders noodzakelijke individuele antwoord. Over Leven en Menswaardigheid.

Afwentelen van de ramp ná de ramp op (voormalige) slachtoffers/overlevers is moreel en feitelijk niet tolerabel. Dat is w a l g e l i j k en stinkt! naar kinderschedels en tanden, zélfs als die niet gevonden werden. Het niet vinden daarvan is dan immers nog steeds géén garantie maar niet anders dan het gelukkig toeval van nou nou nou, valt me dat nu toch even mee.

Middeleeuws pr stunten met wat fooiengestrooi is géén verantwoordelijkheid nemen tov het verleden, maar wat zich katholiek noemend schorem in de VS uithaalde.
Het is géén bescherming van zorg-afhankelijke kinderen!

Nu maar hopen dat ze zich dat in Duitsland realiseren.
Cynisch genoeg misschien wel juist de kracht van het verleden.


Home to something evil
What really happened at Haut de la Garenne, the children's home at the centre of the Jersey care scandal last year? Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy report on a building that still houses some very dark secrets

The Guardian, Saturday 14 March 2009

blog klik

donderdag, augustus 20, 2009

Jersey: carer from Haut de la Garenne children's home guilty of indecent assault

8 maart 2008: Haut de la Garenne
20-8-2009
Gordon Wateridge, a former carer, has been found guilty of indecently assaulting teenagers while he worked at Jersey's Haut de la Garenne children's home in the 1970s.

Gordon Wateridge, nicknamed 'the Perv' by his victims, carried out a string of assaults against teenage girls at the Haut de la Garenne home

The 78-year-old, described as a ''persistent sexual bully'', was found guilty of eight charges of indecent assault and one charge of assault following a trial at Jersey Royal Court.

The court heard that Wateridge would repeatedly grope girls' breasts, hug the teenagers inappropriately and kiss them on the neck.

He indecently assaulted three teenage girls and assaulted one teenage boy.

Youngsters sent to Haut de la Garenne were vulnerable and suffered from a variety of problems, the court heard.

But Wateridge, then in his 40s, abused his obligation to look after them.

Wateridge showed no emotion as the verdicts were returned.

He was warned by Judge Christopher Pitchers that he faced a custodial sentence.

A jury of 10 men and two women began their deliberations on Tuesday afternoon following the trial, which ran for seven days.

Wateridge, who was born in Croydon, south London, and now lives in the Jersey parish of St Clement, was the first person to be charged in connection with an historic abuse investigation on the island, police said.

Speaking outside court, Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell, from the States of Jersey police, said: "Gordon Wateridge, a house parent at Haut de la Garenne, was a sexual bully towards vulnerable young girls in his care.

"We hope the complainants involved in this trial have received some comfort from the decision reached by the court.

"I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the hard work and effort of the people involved in this case such as the investigation team, the witness liaison officers and the legal team, as well as the challenges the complainants have had to face both before and during this trial.

"The historical abuse inquiry is continuing and there is another case in the court process.

"I am unable to comment about the investigation in wider detail at this time.

"We would like to emphasise that the States of Jersey Police take reports of historical abuse seriously, and are committed to investigating them."

dinsdag, oktober 28, 2008

Schools commission to examine 'disappearances of children'


Snow falls on gravesites in the Wabasca Cemetery.
(Ken Armstrong for The Globe and Mail)

BILL CURRY AND JOE FRIESEN
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
October 27, 2008

OTTAWA and TORONTO — The commission examining Indian residential schools is launching a massive new research project to find out who is buried on school grounds and what happened to the young aboriginal boys and girls who left for boarding schools and never returned home.

Kimberly Phillips, a spokesperson for Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said the expanded research has been approved by Claudette Dumont-Smith, one of the commissioners.
The “Missing Children Research Project,” as it has been named, will include “an examination of the number and cause of deaths, illnesses and disappearances of children at the residential schools as well as the location of burial sites,” Ms. Phillips said.

Ms. Phillips said researchers will go through all relevant church and federal government records to find information that will help families looking for lost children. They will also prepare a questionnaire, and encourage former students and people who worked at the schools to come forward with their stories.

The commission's plans also suggest possible options for honouring the spirit of those who died.

According to a commission document obtained by The Globe and Mail, one option involves “visiting residential school sites where graves of Missing Children are located or the cemeteries near the schools where Missing Children have been buried.”

Tuberculosis was the most common reason cited for deaths at schools across the country, however, survivors have said that rumours have circulated over the years that some of the forgotten children died of neglect, abuse or even murder.

The project is viewed internally as highly daunting, given the sheer volume of material available and number of former students willing to talk. It will build on preliminary research that The Globe reported on Monday.

That research confirmed that several residential schools had graveyards on site, that children at some schools were tasked with digging graves, and that some of those cemeteries were unmarked or had only anonymous white crosses.

AFN national chief Phil Fontaine said through his lawyer yesterday that the documents featured in The Globe underscore the need for a commission to continue gathering the complete history of residential schools.

“This is the very kind of issue that needs to be raised,” John Phillips said. “It's the reason the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created.”

That view was echoed by Mike Cachagee, who says he buried the first of four classmates when he was eight years old at Saint John's Indian Residential School in Chapleau, Ont., and then at Moose Factory Indian Residential School in Moose Factory, Ont.

He said he was told the children died of tuberculosis.

Mr. Cachagee, who chairs the National Residential School Survivors' Society, said former students want these graves identified so they can better understand their family histories.

“We can't just have our people planted in the ground and forgotten about,” he said. “That's basically what they did.”

The missing children project has been given the green light as a key meeting is scheduled for Wednesday in Toronto to sort out the controversy over the surprise resignation of commission chairman Mr. Justice Harry LaForme and to map a way forward.

Mr. Phillips will represent the AFN, and lawyers for the federal government, churches and former students will also attend.

There are many differences of opinion heading into the meeting. The federal government wants a legal clarification of the role and powers of the three commissioners. In his resignation letter, Judge LaForme had said there was disagreement over whether the chairman can overrule the two commissioners or whether the three individuals must operate on consensus or majority rule.

Judge LaForme has also claimed that the two other commissioners disagreed with his view that reconciliation should take precedence over digging up truth from the past.

A source close to the process said one of the principal questions to be addressed is whether commissioners Jane Brewin Morley and Ms. Dumont-Smith should be replaced, in light of Justice LaForme's acrimonious departure.

“You'd have to be crazy to step into the remnants of such a dysfunctional situation,” the source said.


Comments

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Hunt begins for long-missing students
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woensdag, juni 18, 2008

'When you are given something to sign by your superior you just sign it.

'Two kids' bodies found at Jersey care home
30/05/2008
The remains of more than one child were found at a former children's home, police said yesterday.
Tests on five teeth found in a cellar at Haut de la Garenne, Jersey, proved "beyond doubt" they were from at least two children.
And they came out AFTER they died, said detectives investigating allegations of abuse.



More teeth found at abuse home

11/06/2008 13:46 - (SA)


London - Police investigating alleged abuse at a former children's home on the Channel island of Jersey have discovered another 14 milk teeth, they said on Wednesday.


It brings the total number found at the Haut de la Garenne site to 27 - all but one of which were found in the cellars. The 14 new teeth have been discovered since Thursday.


Tests on the teeth found earlier revealed that most were "very unlikely to have come out naturally before death", Jersey Police said in a statement, adding that they had come from at least two children.


Police have also found at least 30 charred human bone fragments, indicating that homicide may have taken place, with the victims' bodies possibly cremated in a fireplace.
A massive investigation has discovered widespread allegations of abuse of the home's former residents over three decades until it shut in the 1980s.


Three men have been charged in connection with alleged child abuse at Haut de la Garenne.


A 45-year-old was charged with one count of sodomy against a boy and two counts of indecent assault against two other boys between 1977 and 1980.
A 76-year-old who used to work at the home was charged with indecently assaulting girls under 16 between 1969 and 1979.
Meanwhile a 68-year-old was charged with raping and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl between 1971 and 1974.
A fourth man has also been arrested as part of the wider inquiry.


Jersey, off the northern French coast in the English Channel, is not part of the United Kingdom but a dependency of the British crown which has its own administration and jurisdiction.
Fourteen kilometres long and eight kilometres wide, Jersey was predominantly an agricultural island but is now a major offshore banking centre.


Caretaker sues school for £50,000 after fall because he 'was not trained how to use stepladder'
By Daily Mail Reporter
16th June 2008

......He fractured his skull, broke a cheekbone, split a kidney and spent time in intensive care at Southampton General Hospital, Winchester County Court heard.
He is suing Hampshire County Council for liability, claiming his bosses did not train him properly.

'When you are given something to sign by your superior you just sign it.

'I signed to say I had ladder training but the extent of that was not to stand on the top step and not to go above three metres. ....





Taalstrijd.

woensdag, april 23, 2008

Residential school deaths

Alberni Valley Times
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

For the sake of the survivors of Alberni Indian Residential School, we need to find out the truth.

Kevin Annett, the former Alberni United Church minister turned residential school activist, has laid his cards on the table. Annett claims to have physical evidence at 28 former residential school sites across Canada showing children were killed and buried. That includes what he describes as a series of sinkholes, consistent with old graves, on the former Alberni site.

Are there children buried out there somewhere?

The residential school system proved to be an abomination. Given the basic flaw in the system -- rip aboriginal children from their families and debase their culture, all in the name of making them better people -- that's a given.

Even at that, had those children been allowed to become citizens firmly grounded in both First Nations and "white" culture, what a difference it could have made for successive generations. You'd see former graduates holding reunions on milestone years.

Instead, the reunions are in courtrooms. They're not grads, they're survivors, people with broken lives, testifying to the horrors inflicted on them. One can only imagine what an emotionally harrowing experience it is, to break through years of silence.

That's why loading allegations of mass murder onto these same schools only serves to re-traumatize the victims. Imagine finally coming to grips with the physical, emotional and (in many cases) sexual abuse that was going on around you. You're already suffering survivor's guilt. Now imagine being told that, along with all these other horrors, some of your schoolmates were being murdered.

Tseshaht chief councillor Les Sam has invited a proper investigation of the local site in question, to determine if there is any substance to the claim or if the holes are empty.

For local survivors, getting to the truth may help ease some of the lingering memories.

zaterdag, maart 08, 2008



More than 160 people claim they suffered physical and sexual abuse at Haut de la Garenne, dubbed the "house of horrors" after a child's remains were found buried in a stairwell.
The alleged offences stretch back four decades and victims have named more than 40 suspects, including senior members of staff and a former politician.

The Government has been accused by a former minister of attempting to cover up the abuse and today a protest and remembrance rally will take place at midday outside the States of Jersey building in the Royal Square in St Helier.

Up to 600 people are expected to attend and organisers have requested they bring daffodils as a symbol of hope for the future.

Montford Tadier, of the Jersey pressure group Time for Change, organised the rally and said it would be a chance for people to show their grief and voice their feelings about the way the Government handled the abuse inquiry.
Former health minister Stuart Syvret said the Government has failed children and covered up abuse.

Police have said they are investigating why a number of people came forward in the past to complain about abuse but the complaints were not handled "as they should have been".

Specially-trained dogs found traces of blood in the cellar at Haut de la Garenne. Deputy Police Chief Lenny Harper said the dog had indicated two spots which are believed to be blood, although this is yet to be confirmed by scientific analysis.


08/03/2008 06:09
LONDON (Reuters) - Specially-trained dogs have found blood spots on a bath at a former care home in Jersey which is at the centre of a child abuse inquiry, police said on Friday.

The stone bathtub is in an underground chamber which had been bricked up but has been dug out by police teams.

The spots, invisible to the naked eye, were found on Friday morning.

The discovery of the bath corroborated evidence given by people claiming they had been abused in the cellar.

Police have received a "huge amount" of calls about the case, with more than 160 people saying they had been abused at the Haut de la Garenne home.

maandag, maart 03, 2008

Kinderen beleefden de hel in tehuis op Jersey

Steeds meer volwassenen getuigen over vernedering, foltering en verkrachting

Dagen nadat bekend raakte dat in het voormalige kindertehuis Haut de la Garenne op Jersey wellicht gruwelijke dingen zijn gebeurd - men vond er een kinderschedel -, duiken huiveringwekkende verhalen op van volwassenen die als kind in het tehuis hebben verbleven. Die verhalen doen het ergste vermoeden over wat de politie er nog zal vinden. Dirk Musschoot

Voor Haut de la Garenne in 1986 dicht ging om na een grondige renovatie weer open te gaan als jeugdherberg met honderd kamers, hadden alles samen zo'n duizend 'geplaatste' kinderen er in de jaren zeventig en tachtig een onderkomen gekregen. Sommige van die kinderen van toen durven nu pas met hun verhaal in de openbaarheid te treden.

Toen de politie er de voorbije dagen behalve een kinderschedel ook zwepen en stokken vond waarmee kinderen konden zijn geslagen en enkelboeien die te klein zijn om er volwassenen mee te ketenen, begon het bij enkele slachtoffers van destijds te dagen. Sommigen zijn vandaag immers nog zo in de war door wat ze toen hebben meegemaakt, dat ze pas door de ontdekkingen van de jongste tijd zijn gaan beseffen dat hun boze dromen teruggaan op waargebeurde feiten.

De gebeurtenissen schudden onder meer Peter Hannaford (59) wakker. 'Ik dacht dat ik het vergeten was, maar dit brengt alles weer heel dichtbij.' Hannaford, die de eerste twaalf jaren van zijn leven in Haut de la Garenne doorbracht, vertelt dat hij bang was om 's avonds in bed te kruipen. 'Ik werd mishandeld, elke nacht. Ik heb nooit geweten door wie, want het was donker. Die mishandeling kon alles zijn tussen marteling en verkrachting. Het gebeurde dat je wakker werd omdat twee mensen je armen en je benen stevig op het bed gedrukt hielden. Dan wist je het wel...'

Pamela, een vrouw van 49, noemt de gebeurtenissen in het kindertehuis duivels. In 1974, ze was toen vijftien, kwam ze met haar verhaal naar buiten. Niemand luisterde. Of toch: ze werd opgesloten in een psychiatrisch ziekenhuis. Vandaag vertelt Pamela, moeder van twee kinderen, dat ze destijds Valium kreeg om haar verkrachters ter wille te zijn. 'Ik werd vaak dagenlang naakt in een hok opgesloten omdat ik zogezegd iets mispeuterd had. Verkrachtingen waren er schering en inslag. Ook de oudere tieners deden daaraan mee, en kregen daarvoor van het personeel alcohol en sigaretten.' Pamela werd regelmatig afgeranseld. Ze vermoed dat ze weet wie het was, en ze weet helemaal zeker dat hij altijd rook naar een onprettige mengeling van zweet en bier. De vrouw woont nog altijd op Jersey. Op haar polsen zitten de littekens van een mislukte zelfmoordpoging.

John (54) herinnert zich zijn twee jaar, halfweg de jaren zestig, in Haut de la Garenne als een 'absolute nachtmerrie'. 'Elke avond verplichtten ze de jongens naakt te zwemmen. Daarna moesten we in een rij gaan staan en inspecteerden ze onze geslachtsorganen. We zich verzette, werd op zijn edele delen geslagen.' Korte tijd na zo'n incident probeerde de jonge John zichzelf te doden.

Dan is er ook nog Cyril Turner (48), die slechts twee weken in het tehuis verbleef. Dat was genoeg om hem voor de rest van zijn leven te tekenen. 'Er verdwenen jongens, en toen we vroegen waar ze naartoe waren gegaan, zeiden ze ons dat ze waren geëmigreerd. Later vond ik dat raar. Hoe kon je nu als kind wegraken van Jersey, dat toch een betrekkelijk klein eiland is?' Turner heeft gezien hoe ze sommige kinderen alle hoeken van de kamer lieten zien. 'Wie zich niet gedroeg, werd naakt in een kamer opgesloten en daar op water en brood gezet.' Cyril Turner was dertien toen hij in Haut de la Garenne uit een raam op de tweede verdieping sprong en vluchtte.

Het vakantie-eiland Jersey is nu beschaamd omdat destijds talrijke geruchten over kindermisbruik in Haut de la Garenne nooit ernstig zijn genomen. Velen wisten wat daar gebeurde, of hadden op zijn minst een vermoeden, blijkt nu overal de tongen loskomen. 'Het is onvergeeflijk', zegt dominee Peter Williams. 'Het minste wat we nu moeten doen is ervoor zorgen dat zoiets nooit opnieuw gebeurt.'

Intussen hebben zich bij de politie op Jersey al 150 slachtoffers van Haut de la Garenne gemeld.

woensdag, februari 27, 2008













Ontem apenas

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Uma papoila crescia, crescia