Jersey child sex abuse: Children 'still at risk' in care system as damning report calls for demolition of home

Children may still be at risk in Jersey’s care system, a damning report into the sexual and physical abuse of hundreds of children on the island has found.

The report said authorities turned a blind eye to abuse of vulnerable victims spanning more than seven decades and starting shortly after the end of the Second World War.

The Independent Jersey Care Inquiry recommended that the Haut de La Garenne children’s home, where hundreds of offences took place, be demolished.

The report found children’s rights were being “disregarded” and children were left “abandoned in the care system”.

It also said children were being blamed rather than their abusive carers and concluded that the States of Jersey “proved to be an ineffectual and neglectful substitute parent”.

The Jersey government was described as “ignorant, uncaring and unwilling” to deal with reports of abuse.

Chief Minister, Senator Ian Gorst, told the BBC: “We failed children who needed our care.”

He apologised to “all those who suffered abuse in our island over the years”.

The inquiry, led by Judge Frances Oldham QC, heard more than 200 witnesses following a three-year inquiry into widespread abuse in the care system.

The report said at the end of the inquiry’s hearings in June 2016 “aspects of Jersey’s services for children remained not fully fit for purpose”.

“Children may still be at risk in Jersey and children in the care system are not always receiving the kind of quality of care and support that they need,” it added.

“Instances of physical and sexual abuse and of emotional neglect” were becoming a normal part of life for children in care, according to the report.

Judge Oldham heard 553 offences that took place on the island between 1947 and 2004 and over half were said to have occurred at Haut de la Garenne, which is described as a reminder of “a shameful history” and a “symbol of turmoil and trauma”.

Jimmy Savile regularly visited the care home.

The report found that the wellbeing of vulnerable children had been “low on the list” of the island’s priorities and that the abuse had “devastating” and “lifelong” consequences for the children in care.

It stated: “Failings were at all levels: there was no political interest in defining and promoting standards of care and performance in residential care and no will to invest the resources required in child care services.

“Unsuitable people who were appointed to management roles, often on the basis of local connections, lacked the leadership skills to manage and raise practice standards and had little up to date knowledge of child care theory and practice.

“As a result, ill-suited carers continued to look after children in unsuitable facilities, using outdated practices. The consequences for the children in their care were devastating and, in many instances, lifelong.”

Until the 1990s there was no system in place to report abuse and children were often afraid to come forward, the report added.

It said a “cultural change” was now needed on the island after the “Jersey Way” was largely blamed for systematic failings and the behaviour of many “sweeping serious issues under the carpet”.

The inquiry panel issued more than 600 recommendations, including the appointment of a specific commissioner for children, giving children a voice through an effective complaints system, further inspection of services, more work in recruiting and retaining suitably qualified staff and a public acknowledgement for victims.

Mr Gorst said he would accept every recommendation.