What to do with Haut de la Garenne ?

The former Haut de la Garenne children's home has been used since 2011 as an Accommodation and Activity Centre.
The building can accommodate about 100 people and is registered under the Hostel category of the Jersey Tourism Law.
The building is listed as a Grade 4 example of a residential institution for its external appearance only. The interior has been extensively altered and modernised to suit its current purpose which is run by a local business for the owners - the States of Jersey Property Services Department - on a lease that currently expires in April 2019.
The building is within the Green Zone.

The business has spent a considerable amount of money improving the building and facilities.
Since 2012 the centre has provided accommodations and facilities for more than 35,500 bed nights. Many of the users are children with school groups from the UK and abroad but accommodation is available to small groups and families too.

Haut de la Garenne featured prominently in the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry which investigated extensive child abuse in Jersey since 1945 and Reported in July 2017.

That Inquiry recommended that Haut de la Garenne should be demolished among many other reforms..

This video was recorded on Sunday 18 February 2018 when the building was opened to the public over two afternoons.
It is intended to show something of the existing hostel facilities only without comment.
About 90 people visited over the two days.

The business owners have written to 47 States Members. 30 did not reply at all. Only a handful accepted their invitation to visit the building.
CM Gorst has not responded.

The question of what should be done with Haut de la Garenne has now been put out for public consultation from 8 February until 22 April 2018 through the Community and Constitutional Affairs Department. This can be contacted via HDLG@gov.je

It seems that the adjacent building "Aviemore" does not form part of this consultation for reasons which are not clear.

Alan Collins English Solicitor - Advocate and the Jersey Care Inquiry April 2014

Alan Collins (above) was recorded on 3 April following the first public meeting of the Jersey Care Inquiry.
Those who attended heard an impressive sounding introduction from Frances Oldham QC the Chair and received bundles of documents on protocols and procedures to study and the Terms of Reference appeared superficially comprehensive....but no questions were allowed and the QC with her two  fellow panellists made a speedy departure from the hall.
Left behind to explain more to the audience - which included several SOJ Police Officers   - were the UK  Counsels and Solicitors who will do much of the "legal" work.
These four (with one absent on the day) claimed to be experienced in running such as the "Bloody Sunday" Irish Inquiry and helpfully engaged in a Q and A session around the table with some of the more interested parties - including "bloggers".

But for people so widely experienced the four seemed to have a rather limited grasp of the scale of the problem in mounting an Inquiry which spans the years from 1945 to date in this strange little community and potential flaws soon became apparent....

Time will tell of course but it also became apparent that this may be a commodity in short supply and that those who want the TOR to be fully explored may yet have to do much of the investigative work themselves.
If research is going to be undertaken it was not obvious who might be employed on this team to do it.
Unless somebody out there has an enormous ready prepared file of clippings from the JEP for example and/or extracts of court cases since the war, then there are likely to be many gaps in the basic record to work from....

And if  witnesses and those with knowledge are to be alerted and located from around the world it must also be obvious that an Inquiry Web Page alone will hardly find them...

So on reflection - not a very impressive start - and some of these matters are discussed in the interview with Alan Collins who has represented 59 Jersey "survivors" in the Compensation scheme arising from Haut de la Garenne etc abuses.
His role in this Inquiry is not at all clear and there are many obscure aspects of the procedures to be followed that might have been better discussed and agreed in public before these rules were laid down.

Were these modelled on a previous Inquiry somewhere else? Yes confirmed the four...all the more worrying thought yours truly....

Alan Collins (formerly with Pannone) is now with  lawyers Slater & Gordon (twitter @ slatergordon or AlanCollins@abuselaw) in the UK  and is a Specialist Child Abuse Solicitor.
Previous interviews with him have been posted on this blog on 23 August 2013, 15 December 2012 and 16 August 2012.

The Independent Jersey Care Inquiry can be contacted at POB 551, St Helier, Jersey, JE4 8XN
Freephone from Jersey 0800 735 0100
info@jerseycareinquiry.org
www.jerseycareinquiry.org

Alan Collins, Jimmy Savile and Jersey child-abuse continued...

We posted a previous interview with Alan Collins, the English solicitor-advocate from PANNONE LLP on 25 August 2012.

He has continued with his representation of more than 50 clients arising from the Jersey Haut de la Garenne care home failures and related cases but the huge Jimmy Savile scandal has since been opened up and Alan is now the lawyer for two Jersey complainants.

Here he explains his current role regarding all these cases among many other related matters.
He repeats also his previous offer to share his knowledge gained over many years of dealing with child abuse cases with the Jersey government...

The current video plays for about 15 minutes.

ALAN COLLINS English lawyer for Jersey Child Abuse survivors 2012

Alan Collins is a solicitor-advocate with English lawyers PANNONE who specialises in child abuse cases. He started his career as a criminal lawyer but by chance now deals almost exclusively and internationally with cases such as that centred on the Haut de la Garenne children’s home in Jersey (Channel Islands)

“Child abuse knows no boundaries” says Alan but it is very significant that he – an English lawyer – should be pursuing these Jersey cases whilst the 250 or so lawyers from this little Island seem to have been so reluctant to help the many survivors.

The Jersey compensation scheme now being implemented accepts abuse cases from 1945 onwards (the end of the Second World-War). Alan is now dealing with 50 cases plus there are several lawyers engaged from different UK legal practices in further cases.

This surely demonstrates just how substantial the Jersey failure has been and how deep-seated is the neglect by the Jersey legal and judicial system in response.

A look at “Alan Collins Pannone” or via www.pannone.com will find his website giving details of many similar cases in the UK and elsewhere.

So Jersey is not unique in this regard but Alan highlights (in this interview) his concerns about the long promised Jersey Inquiry which already seems to be denying participation to those most affected – the survivors.

If there is abuse taking place today in Jersey care homes, hospitals, schools or the prison, who would respond to it or report it?

The instances of institutional abuse – sexual and physical – regularly reported in the UK press are just the tip of the iceberg.

It is unrealistic to suppose that such abuse does not still take place here and now in this Island.

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INFORMATION SOUGHT

Anybody reading this with knowledge or experience of abuse in Jersey in the distant or more recent past - that has not been fully investigated – whether in hospitals, prison, schools or care homes etc., is invited to make contact with tom gruchy on this blog through the “comment” facility.

Any information will not be published and is confidential.

OR email

mikedun@jerseymail.co.uk   This is sought for research purposes by this blogsite.

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