JERSEY CHILD ABUSE: NON-PROSECUTION OF ‘GROOMING GANG’ SCANDAL PROVES NOTHING HAS CHANGED SINCE HAUT DE LA GARENNE

If anyone genuinely wanted proof that ‘the Jersey Way’ in all its sordid indifference to protecting children still ensures the safety of vulnerable minors comes a very distant second to promoting a bogus, squeaky clean image for potential international finance business then the revelations about how a grooming gang were let off the hook because ‘no one would give evidence’ surely provides it in spades. Quite frankly the excuses being offered, and just as horrifying, the fact it was all hushed up by the authorities is simply stomach-churning. 

Really, as one of the tiny band of States Members, both past and present, who fought the five year battle to secure the Committee of Inquiry - not to mention having personally led the Scrutiny review which finally exposed the deliberate trashing of Operation Rectangle by Jersey’s MSM - even I find myself asking ‘Just what the hell does it take to wake up so many people in this island to how upside down our Establishment’s values are even in the second decade of the 21st Century? 

Indeed, as a fellow blogger rightly commented it seems hitting ‘middle Jersey’ in the pocket with a small hike in school fees will get those parents out in convoy to protest. Yet tell them our kids are quite likely to be groomed, explicitly videoed or even buggered will barely raise an eyebrow! Have we really learnt so little from the predatory abuse of Roger Holland, Andrew Jervis-Dykes and their ilk; and the ‘look the other way’ attitude of the Bailhaches and disgraced Jurat John Lyndon Le Breton et al? 

Of course the true 6 million dollar question – and the one which really must not be overlooked here – in pushing for some accountability for this latest outrage is this: just who decided that this gang of young men should not be prosecuted? Was it ‘I’ll police in any way the Establishment tell me to’ Chief Mike’ Bowron? (Yes, he really did say that to a Scrutiny panel.) Or was it Attorney General Tim Le Cocq – perhaps trying to keep up the ‘Jersey Way’ tradition of his two Bailhache predecessors? Whatever the answer the culprit really has to be sacked. Yet he won’t be and the very fact we all know this surely only compounds the despair. 

What these events also remind us for the umpteenth time is that here in Establishment Jersey the law and whether or not it is enforced depends entirely , 100% upon who you are and what degree of damage might be done to image of the Flying Banana Republic by a prosecution. Equally of course what damage a pursued prosecution could help do to anyone who has dared challenge the Establishment. 

The examples of this are legion but if in any doubt just think Article 39A and William Bailhaches malicious prosecutions of ‘progressives’ for assisting disabled/elderly people to register a postal vote application; whilst leaving Establishment candidates who breached the same farcical law untouched. 

Just think Data Protection Law ‘breaches’ and the hugely expensive show trial prosecution of Stuart Syvret; whilst email thief and hate site publication enabler Deputy Sean Power received only a wrist slap. Why is this all relevant? The answer is really quite simple.do. 

Prior to the Jersey Evening Post’s welcome – if decades overdue and no doubt wholly temporary conversion to uncovering child abuse - I had been asking discreet but persistent questions on this very story following a tip off. 

Okay, so with all else going on in my life; and having recently also learnt that Bowron had been secretly complaining to the Privileges & Procedures Committee to try and prevent me asking any uncomfortable questions about police failings, I wasn’t able on this occasion to progress this or take it forward in the same very public manner I have always believed the island’s people deserved to ensure matters did not simply remain buried in time honoured ‘Jersey Way’ fashion.. 

But the fact is that what was said to be going on with this ‘grooming gang’ case was deeply disturbing. And there were two main reasons for my concern. 

Firstly, I knew for a fact that the ‘no one would give evidence’ to allow a prosecution excuse held about as much water as a string vest. Not only are such decisions never down to the victims alone to have the final say on when set against prosecuting ‘in the public interest’; the fact was that the Jersey Police had the example of a similar - though in my analysis of the facts – far less serious case only some short years ago.. And not only was a prosecution pursued despite similar alleged reluctance but this was done until a conviction was secured. 

Without going into full details of what is a case on public record if one wants to research, I was contacted by an involved party, with concerns about the media portrayal of how what was claimed to have been an immature male in his late teens had become involved in a scenario bearing some striking similarities to this latest scandal. In this case younger and underage females were also being provided with alcohol and cigarettes purchased at their request by the male in exchange for the promise of girls then displaying their bodies via a webcam link. 

Of course whilst it can be no excuse for the young man in this case both his stated immaturity and the alleged fact that the girls promises made to him to ensure he purchased the requested alcohol more often turned out to be nothing more than a lever they can be said to be relevant mitigating factors. Yet the fact remains that the teenage male was of course rightly prosecuted. So why then it must be asked – with according to my information – no such mitigating circumstances involved was an organised group of alleged ‘groomers’ not also pursued through the court in the same way? 

The answer I suggest may possibly lie in the second concern I talked of. This was the allegation made to me that one of the young men in this latest case had a family and educational background which may have caused significant embarrassment to Jersey’s Establishment should any public prosecution have eventually transpired. Can I confirm this to be 100% accurate? No now being out of politics I cannot. Yet as the information about the grooming gangs activities have proved to be on the money these concerns are surely ones which our Chief of Police and Attorney General need to address to Jersey’s wider community as a matter of urgency. 

If they do not then the Establishment’s usual denials about the ‘Jersey Way’ ensuring law is only applied here according to who a person is will continue to ring as hollowly as they have always done. Yet who knows…with Shona and I no longer being in the States Chamber as we tread the road toward Strasbourg for legal abuses tied to this very same ‘Jersey Way’ perhaps there is still another States Member brave enough to ask the questions this latest scandal so obviously demands…. 

Perhaps we had better listen out next Tuesday? Keep the Faith.

THE HYPOCRISY OF THE JEP - ATTEMPT TO GAG US ON REVEALING THE FAILINGS OF PAEDOPHILE PROTECTING JURAT AT THE CENTRE OF OUR APPEAL!

They say that a week is a long time in politics. Yet what a difference a week appears to make to the selective memories of those behind Jersey's Establishment mouthpiece the Jersey Evening Post! After all, it was only a few short days ago that we had had to seek a costly temporary injunction due to the newspaper's plans to again smear us by falsely linking Shona and myself with the now infamous bogus 'threatening letter' scam.

 

Of course, even though new editor-designate Andy Sibcy had to back down on this quite heinous lie as a consequence of the judges' words the Main Stream Media still ran a story that gave a wholly misleading and deliberately negative spin on the truth to the Jersey public.

 

Indeed, not only were we falsely accused by the JEP of trying to stifle 'free speech' because we had stood up to these threats of yet another smear; but being fully aware of the truth due to the presence of their journalist Leah Ferguson at the injunction hearing, Channel Television (ITV) still told their viewers that the bogus letter 'threat' was linked to us!  Incidentally, the Director, Karen Rankine is, of course, very good friends of a number of Establishment Ministers, though we are sure this has nothing whatsoever to do with her company refusing to tell their viewers the truth.

 

OK so such behaviour by the Island's MSM is no surprise to anyone who follows local politics closely. Indeed, it is a prime reason why more and more local people are abandoning them for Citizens' Media blogs who tell people the truths the Establishment want covered up.

 

Nevertheless, given that all of this revolves around a court case which the Establishment hope to manipulate to force us out of politics because we refuse to be silenced on matters such as child abuse and judicial corruption; if the MSM really wish to protest their impartiality and fairness then I wonder how they will now report this? 

 

The JEP want to prevent you the public from knowing the truth about a Jurat happy to look the other way on evidence of the most serious nature!

 

Yes indeed, the Jersey Evening Post being a veritable bastion of truth seekers (or so you would imagine after last week's sermonising) have just attempted via their lawyers - in a submission to the Appeal Court judges actually kept secret from us in clear contempt for legal protocol - to prevent the damning evidence against Jurat John Le Breton contained within the Sharp Report from being made available to the Appeal Court in our application to be heard in the week of November 25th.

 

Evidence that would then become available to you and thus allow the public to finally know what the appeal is truly about. Evidence that shows beyond any shadow of a doubt that ANY court in which John Le Breton sat could never be regarded as safe let alone Article 6 European Convention on Human Rights compliant. Why?

 

Because this independent and long-suppressed report reveals a man who was allowed to be put forward - and consequently sit - as a Jurat for 14 years even though it was known by the those at the apex of the Jersey judiciary that he could not be relied upon to fulfil the one sacred duty at the very core of a Jurat's role:

 

TO FULLY CONSIDER ALL OF THE EVIDENCE BEFORE REACHING A DECISION ON FACT!

 

Indeed, regardless of all the other overwhelming evidence in support of our contention that the findings of Jurat John Le Breton and his inexperienced colleague Sylvia Milner were without merit, the evidence laid out about Le Breton's failings within the Sharp Report render the whole court process untenable in itself. Yet guess what? Those pillars of justice and transparency at the Jersey Evening Post have secretly attempted to argue through their lawyers that Le Breton's openness to 'looking the other way' on evidence against certain parties - no matter how serious - are...'irrelevant'!

 

No - you didn't read that wrong. 'IRRELEVANT'!

 

So (and I make no apologies for repeating any of this again) let's just have a quick re-cap on just what the Sharp Report reveals about the cover-up of the sickening child abuse of Andrew Jervis-Dykes at Victoria College; and what his friend and colleague, John Le Breton did and didn't do in response. Indeed, a re-cap on what the Jersey Evening Post and its lawyers do not want the court to be able to consider nor you to even know should it damage their hopes of benefiting from the original court's failings....

 

Over a period of many years Jervis-Dykes manipulated off-island boat trips where Jervis-Dykes would ensure he was the only adult member of staff. The College knew about this but did nothing. The consequence? Jervis-Dykes was free to ply young boys with large amounts of alcohol in order that he could then wait until darkness and sexually abuse them. His speciality was both masturbating and performing forced oral sex on children. He even liked to video this abuse!

 

What did John Le Breton do, when all of this sickening abuse over many years finally began to hit the buffers after years of the College deliberately keeping a lid on the events?

 

As far back as in 1992 Sharp reveals, along with the College Headmaster, he is seen to have been quite willing to flout all child protection guidelines in not contacting the Police and Education/Children's Service authorities following complaints from two pupils of abuse. Instead, participating in what can only be described as a humiliating and wholly inappropriate ad-hoc 'internal inquiry'. And this was not the only failing by a long way. 

 

 

Yet now, faced with the abuse finally about to become public, even when asked by the Headmaster to examine video evidence against his friend and colleague, John Le Breton instead refused to look at the evidence. Yes - he REFUSED! Even worse perhaps he incredibly then even went on to argue in the paedophile's defence. His argument in support of the paedophile included truly incredible contentions that:

 

• 'he had served the College in an outstandingly competent and conscientious way'
 
• 'that there may be no case to answer'
 
• that if Jervis-Dykes had to resign he should be allowed to do so  'with some dignity'
 
• that without a Police prosecution any resignation could be seen as a consequence of 'an unsubstantiated allegation.'
 
• that even if Jervis-Dykes had to resign he should be allowed to continue teaching pupils as Head of Maths as this 'would not place anyone at risk'
 

Yet the JEP and their lawyers want all of this to be seen as 'irrelevant' and kept out of both the court's considerations and public knowledge

 

All whilst they continue to seek to force us out of politics and financially ruin us. For let readers be in no doubt of the duplicity here. Whilst spouting nonsense about such failures within the judicial process being 'irrelevant', the JEP through their lawyers Collas Crill have already sought a Viscounts order to seize our possessions. We will also of course be forced from our home - and perhaps most central to the motivation behind all of this - consequently forced out of being able to represent our constituents by losing our seats under the States of Jersey (2005) law.  All of this in the event of losing our Appeal as a consequence of this travesty.

 

Oh yes, the hypocrisy of the Jersey Evening Post in regard to attempting to both stifle 'free speech' and keeping crucial evidence from both court and the Island's people appear to know neither shame nor limit. Remember analysing evidence is at the very heart of what a Jurat is entrusted by the court to do. It cannot be said to be 'irrelevant' under any circumstance.

 

It is what the public - and most certainly those directly involved in any court process - MUST be able to entrust a Jurat to do. Yet for Jurat John Le Breton as we can see - and it really does not matter at all whether through misguided loyalties; incompetence or simple lack of integrity - this fundamental commitment to evidence clearly is not there.

 

I thus put it to readers of the Bald Truth Jersey bluntly. When one considers this claim of 'irrelevance' from the Island's only newspaper; and indeed, the possibility that a court would let the findings of such a deeply unreliable individual stand, does anyone really wonder why decade upon decade of institutional child abuse has been allowed to go on unchecked?

 

For perhaps a very good 'snapshot judgement' upon whether anything within the now infamous so-called 'Jersey Way' that allowed all of the child abuse to happen down the years has changed, will simply be to see how many of our MSM (Mainstream Media) now report this attempt at stifling the truth and evidence I reveal and do so fairly. I for one must say I will not be holding my breath.

 

Keep the Faith

 

 

TRANSMISSIONS FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE OF JERSEY DEMOCRACY

 

 

Harking back to the early days of this blog I publish below a handful of updates on recent happenings within the tiny Neo-Feudal State on Britain's doorstep. A fairly long read perhaps but 4 separate stories with facts you certainly won't see in the Jersey mainstream media...

 

ESC and the strange case of the Starting Pistol 'incident'...

 

Following on from a suppressed story I broke a few weeks ago it has been confirmed that a teacher has now been charged over this incident. An incident that revolved around the said pistol being discharged in the school sports hall and injuring - though thankfully not seriously - a male pupil's eyes. The judicial aspect to this case must now be allowed to run its course through the courts. 

 

However, the alleged serious failings within standard ESC policy in the light of such incidents must also be addressed over the summer as a matter of urgency. This must culminate whatever the findings - and let us hope that it proves a situation retrievable for all involved - in a statement being made to the States Assembly by the ESC Minister. Why?

 

99% of teachers do a great job

 

In first stating for the record that, though highlighting the very serious concerns alleged to me by the mother of the injured pupil i.e. his allegedly not being taken to hospital by staff; his being kept on the premises until the end of the day; the correct ESC reporting procedures not being adhered to; and lastly - the claim that no one at the school ever contacted the mother herself, this is NOT in any way an attack by me on the teaching profession generally.

 

I have always supported the teaching profession and will continue to do so. 99% of teachers do an often thankless and damned good job. However, when I come across things that are not as they should be - such as in the suspension policy review I chaired for Scrutiny - I will highlight these.

 

It is perhaps stating the obvious but with a record like ESC and other childrens' services have come to be lumbered with thanks to a number of figures 'at the top' (departmentally and politically)following the HDLG scandal - not to mention instances of decent, ordinary Jersey parents being hit with appalling 'gagging' orders simply for standing up to be counted when their children have been victimised - that ESC still has a long way to go to prove it is wholly committed to both transparency and accountability.  Unfair on so many this undoubtedly is - but there you go.

 

The Bald Truth behind Option B and its leading lights' attitude to democracy...

 

With Special Agent the 'B Team Bug' recently joining the Ministerial Mole in my growing squad of Establishment Party infiltrators I can now reveal a very telling incident which took place at a meeting of the gang just prior to the recent States debate on Senator Bailhache's hijacked Electoral Commission referendum.

 

During the meeting, or so the 'Bug' tells the story, it came to be argued by a minority of the B Team's foot-soldiers that the proposals would never get through the States unless it was tweaked to actually provide some fairness in representation to the third of the population living in St. Helier. Fairness of the sort being proposed by both I and Deputy Andrew Green. Yet what happened next? Apparently the minority were turned upon and ridiculed by B Team Grandees such as former Senator Horsfall.

 

What is the former Senator really after?

 

Now I'm sure you'll remember the ex-Senator - he was a key figure in the move to risk Jersey putting all of our economic eggs into the one basket of the Finance industry. He was also a prime saboteur of the Clothier proposals he was meant to champion. He also just happened to have started out as an Option A supporter this time - even telling the Electoral Commission (in my presence) that the Constables had to go in the interests of democracy!

 

The bottom line in all of this? Don't be fooled by the bleating voices of politicians like Deputy Sean Power: most of the key drivers behind Option B are interested only in cementing total control of the States via ensuring massive over-representation for the smaller country parishes. For true democracy they care not as their actions reveal.

 

A brave man reduced to throwing himself on his knees in the Royal Square to plead for help against the 'justixce' system meant to help him...

 

Can anyone imagine that they would lightly take the decision to throw themselves down on their knees in Jersey's Royal Square to plead for assistance? No - i can't either. yet this was what one brave man, Mr Sam Canon felt he had no choice but to try just before last Tuesday's States Sitting.

 

Now the intricacies of Sam's case will be unfolded on the Voiceforchildren blog and possibly here two over coming weeks. But until such time let me just say that I took up Sam's case - one of an ever-growing number - because not only has he had to suffer wrongly for years; his case also has elements of just about every corruption and failing you could hope to (or actually would hope NOT to) find in a so-called justice system.

 

'Reporters' who apparently don't want stories

 

The Jersey mainstream media were all advised of what was going to happen. It should have undoubtedly have made a great, if deeply worrying news story. Yet guess what? Only reporters from the local ITV bothered to turn up to record it. Do they seriously wander why so many feel the Jersey Establishment and the media go hand-in-hand in keeping injustice out of the headlines? Fortunately, the excellent Team Voice was there to record the event; and I believe a further full length interview with this brave man will be available shortly.

 

And finally - the latest in the shameful saga of Le Breton-gate...

 

This week the Bailiff once again blocked a perfectly legitimate personal statement which I had sought to make. This having been found 'guilty' by the now defunct Simon Crowcroft led PPC for allegedly breaching the code on e-mail communications by asking for opinions on Public Sector pay negotiations and any justice system problems.

 

Now leaving aside the very telling fact that out of thousands of recipients the only complaints about my 'breach' were from none other than Chief Minister Gorst and one of his own pen pushers (I actually had 30 times the number of contacts of either expressed support or new information!) the aspect I want to focus on here is in regard to what it confirms yet again about the ease by which justice in Jersey can be manipulated and even abused.

 

That a politician can even be questioned over asking States employees to contact him if they have any points or concerns to raise on pay negotiations really says all that needs to be said. Yet when it comes to 'justice' what we saw here was an example of why the so-called 'dual role' of the Bailiff has to go.

 

This anachronism has no place in a 21st century democracy

 

Just as with Shona's blocked statement back in April; once again faced with a statement that highlighted concisely how he had, through his own office, allowed an impossibly conflicted jurat to sit on our defamation case, the Bailiff took off his 'hat' as the criticised Head of the Judiciary and put on his other 'hat' as Head of the Legislature to block the statement and thus prevent the criticism!

 

Not just this, of course, but also the wholly fair and warranted criticism that the Bailiff's Office had allowed - for a staggering 14 years* - a man who was happy to refuse to consider evidence against a sickening paedophile to sit in judgement of countless other cases. Cases where the said jurat, John Le Breton's ONLY responsibility was to examine and weigh up evidence before reaching a decision based on this!

 

I ask readers: is it really any wonder that an ever growing number of Jersey people - decent, ordinary people like we ourselves - are now coming forward (just take a look at Voiceforchildren's compilation of just a few of them) feeling that Jersey's 'justice' system is nothing more than a vehicle for oppression?

 

Sour grapes? Hardly - everyone should be entitled to justice. And in our own case Jurat John Le Breton has been caught bang-to-rights no matter how much he might try and wriggle. Indeed, it would actually be almost funny were it not so serious to read his excuses as quoted in a letter to us from the Deputy Bailiff.

 

If you made these excuses up people would laugh

 

He has to admit here that he has socialised with a director of the paper's owning company - even at each others homes - on a number of occasions just in recent years. He even wonderfully tells us that he contends 'there was no SIGNIFICANT relationship prior to his becoming a jurat'! No I am not making this admission up - i honestly doubt I have the imagination. Then, of course, there is the further fact that the jurat's social relationship actually goes back a whole lot longer - back at least to when he and the director's spouse were both teachers at Victoria College where Jervis-Dykes carried out his sickening abuse.

 

Yet will the powers that be now seek to prevent our wholly warranted application to appeal against this travesty of justice? Well, we already know the lawyers for the newspaper and their clients are desperate not to see it happen.

 

Strasbourg really maybe the ultimate answer

 

Of course, that it really shouldn't need a European Court of Human Rights to put this miscarriage of justice right is undeniable - at least to anyone who genuinely believes in justice for all. Yet maybe ultimately washing Jersey's self-soiled linen in full view of an international audience is what it will take to wake the UK justice Ministry from its slumber and make those who allowed these travesties to happen finally get their house in order?

 

Keep the Faith. If we can you can.

 

*PS

 

NMM. It really was 14 years!

 

 

 

 

 

 



JERSEY 'JUSTICE' SYSTEM CORRUPT - EVEN CROWN ADVOCATES ARE SAYING IT NOW...



So when will the Lieutenant-Governor finally smell the coffee and intervene to restore democracy? 
 

A bit of a catastrophe took place in the Royal Court today. You see suddenly it wasn't just the 'little people' of Jersey; or even Progressive, Leftist politicians that the Establishment beneficiaries of the Finance gravy train wanted to silence shouting about the worst kept secret in Jersey: judicial corruption. No, this time it was actually one of the 'Inner Circle' - a Crown Advocate no less!
 

Yes, the Curtis Warren trial was back in St. Helier town again and this time around he may well have understandably been asking himself: hang on - why is it only me stuck out at La Moye in a cramped little cell? Could it really be, as one man described it so poetically, that the worms are finally starting to turn on each other as a few of us hardy souls digging for answers just keep refusing to roll over at the intimidation and die?
 

The inevitable consequence of an Establishment that is obsessed with crushing people...
 

Now none of this is really news to me, of course. As I have ensured is now well documented for when it seems we have to join the growing trail of islanders to Strasbourg: Deputy Shona Pitman and I have been victims of a sham judicial process that would have seen heads roll in embarrassment even in Mugabe's Zimbabwe so undeniably non-ECHR compliant was it. Its just 'the Jersey Way'.
 

Come on, you recall - Jurat John Lyndon Le Breton who is an evidenced mate and dinner chum of one of the defendant newspaper's senior directors and has been for years allowed by the Bailiff's Office to decide on evidence in our defamation case. Not to mention, of course, Le Breton also being a 'man' put forward by a former Education President to become said Jurat (lay judge) despite having been proven to happily look the other way on evidence against his predatory paedophile friend and Victoria College colleague Andrew Jervis-Dykes.
 

Oh...and at a time, of course, should anyone forget, while former Attorney General, Bailiff and reader of classified documents on planes - Senator Philip Bailhache (yup, the AG who allowed convicted paedophile Roger Holland join the Honorary Police) was also sitting on the very same Victoria College Board of Governors. Yes, the ideal type of character to make quite sure we all get justice!
 

Fact: our 'justice' system is out of control - just how much more evidence does the UK need?
 

But let's put this Warren case revelation into perspective. for its not as if the UK Minister for Justice, Lord Tom McNally hasn't had enough examples to stir him to action already, is it...

• prisoners left to rot on remand for more than a year then intimidated to plead 'guilty' or their mother will be implicated and charged
• police officer accused of sexual assault not charged but allowed to just leave the Island
• illegal secret court cases against dissident former politician
• taxpayers' money - thousands of pounds of it - given to vicious, cowardly convicted thugs to victimise their own victim
• prime, evidenced suspects in child abuse investigations (who just happen to be Establishment stalwarts and even the odd millionaire) never taken to court
• instead senior police officers trying to bring them to justice smeared or 'suspended' out of a job
• hard-working businessmen arrested, bundled into a police car and forced to report daily to the police station - all for a planning offence that they didn't even commit
• victims of abuse at Haut de la Garenne told they couldn't proceed with their case because they were 'never at the Home' - even though other victims personally remember them

And yet these are just the tip of the iceberg, of course. But now in the unfolding of the latest episode of the Warren case we actually have something different: a Crown Advocate telling the court that if this case was in the UK it would be the biggest story of the year and front page news. Because of, he says, the corruption within the...justice system!
 

Baton down the hatches - this could be the straw that breaks the camel's back...
 

But not in Jersey, of course. Oh no! Our lackey Establishment party MSM media don't want to report on that kind of thing. Bad for the squeaky clean Off-Shore image, old boy! Bad for business! But hang on surely this Warren case news is very, very serious stuff? stuff even the 'repeaters' of the Jersey MSM will struggle to bury.
 

I mean...did several members of the public really hear it correctly? Did Crown Advocate Baker, defending Curtis Warren, really state that the Jersey Attorney General had... lied? Blimey, whatever could happen next? A victim of abuse be pressured by the Law Office into accepting deportation and the Church leader who failed to safeguard against the perpetrator be carried back to the States on a donkey like a martyred hero? All to the accompanied mass foot-stomping of the EDL (Establishment Defence League) of course!
 

Secret court hearings - Jersey's new growth industry...
 

Still, I suppose the members of the public who swear this is what they heard a Crown Advocate say are actually lucky to have heard anything at all? You see Solicitor General Howard Sharp (a man who always wears an expression in the States suggesting he thinks he is far, far too important to be asked questions by mere elected representatives of the people who pay his huge salary) actually argued that all of the important evidence in the case should really be heard in...secret!
 

What? Yes, he didn't want we 'little people'; or any naughty Leftie trouble-makers who might bang on about pinko-commie nonsense like justice. transparency and democracy perhaps from knowing what was really taking place. Now doesn't this make you ever so slightly suspicious as to just what those at the apex of the Jersey 'justice' system could have to hide?
 

So Keep the faith and just maybe we will soon begin to find out and a whole lot more besides that worms really do always turn eventually. Meanwhile, over to you Lieutenant-Governor...

TRUTH & THE JERSEY WAY: SOME THINGS JUST DON'T GO TOGETHER.

Committee of Inquiry members named as Option B & the Jersey Evening Pravda keep spinning the lies...

In the week that finally saw the first two names for the hard-won Committee of Inquiry into decades of Establishment-concealed child abuse announced the crucial importance of all of these people being 100% independent of Jersey's self-proclaimed elite could not have been more strongly reiterated.

 

For if the Committee of Inquiry is to finally get to the bottom of what went on at Haut de la Garenne and other institutions (States and otherwise) they will need to have a commitment to truth burned into the forefront of their approach at all times. Of course, this fact would likely go without saying in most jurisdictions. But sadly Jersey is not 'most' jurisdictions. It is...how shall we put it: different.

 

Both different in that it is fundamentally one of the most special places you could ever hope to find. But 'different' too in that we unfortunately have a clique of people at the apex of power desperate to hold on to power here for whom truth appears to come a very long way down their list of priorities.

People who regularly try to rubbish true proponents of political equality,transparency and accountability - yet are quite happy to throw such words around themselves like so much confetti at a wedding. So long as it helps them get what benefits THEM.

 

Option B for Bullsh*t...

 

Anyone doubting this fact really need look no further than those at the forefront of the campaign for Option B in the forthcoming (hijacked) Jersey referendum. Already the pages of the local Pravda (more on this later) have been swamped with letters whose lack of honesty (it surely can't be just ignorance, can it?) should tell you that buying a  secondhand car from the authors might just be one hell of a risk.

 

Why do I say this? Well, it is quite simple. The cold, hard truth of the matter is that Option B - if it were to become law - would create voter inequality that would make Jersey the laughing stock of Europe. Indeed, this would not just be because of a degree of resultant inequality that would cause riots on the streets of any normal democracy; it would be because no other country in Europe would actually even consider risking putting forward such non-ECHR compliant, neo-feudal claptrap as a government-backed initiative in the first place.

 

Thatcher may be dead but the self-interest mentality lingers on...

 

Yet here in Jersey, of course, we see people such as former occasional visitor to the States Chamber, Ben 10 Shenton; Clothier saboteur Pierre Horsfall and even young Thatcherite wannabees like James Rondel all spouting the demonstrable garbage that Option B will create a 'fairer' system! Really boys?

 

Then why is it, let me ask, that not a single one of you B faction brigade can ever manage to explain exactly 'how'? Why they are so quiet on this issue and keen to adopt the standard far-right diversionary attack of branding people who differ 'wreckers' is because they know they are talking the aforesaid utter tosh.

 

Option B is the choice for people who say that they want efficiency, stability and equality. But actually want an entrenched two-tier society that will continue to let those with the deepest pockets and the lowest ethics carry on riding the elitist gravy train a few years longer. Ride the gravy train even in the knowledge it will ultimately - certainly within the next 20 years -lead the majority into the economic and social Abyss. Please make sure you look at what they DON'T tell you.

 

To this regard a few weeks ago the A Team were using a catchy little slogan that played on this truth with a tongue-in-cheek 'No Plan B'. May I politely suggest that a more honest slogan would be:

 

 

'Vote B and you'll B stuffed - Forever!'

 

 





Which brings us neatly on to that bastion of Establishment Party lies...the Jersey Evening Pravda

 

Now the fact that the local Pravda  is already up to its old tricks in support of the B campaign (lovely big photo of 'thumbs up for inequality' Shenton) should come as a surprise to nobody who follows local politics. This newspaper has been actively working to undermine democracy and spinning Establishment propaganda since at least the end of the Second World War. Doubt my word then just go and sit in the reference library for a few hours.

 

Indeed, the JEP's consistency in this strategy has been remarkable and has never once faltered: whether this required such diverse ploys as refusing to let the Jersey Democratic Movement publish its election manifesto; portraying heroes of the Occupation such as the legendary Norman Le Brocq as rouble-grasping, anti-Jersey 'wreckers' or just about anything else.

 

Psst! Need a couple of Lefties portrayed as fraudsters even when all they really did (like some Establishment candiates!) was help a few elderly and/or disabled people register for a postal vote? Yup - Pravda are the boys for the job!

Want a child abuse investigation trashed and years of buggery, bullying and unheeded cries for help from children painted as secondary to what PC Plod had for dinner - once again, we're your guys! Want a dodgy copper leaking information during a live child abuse investigation to a hack Daily Mail journalist instead painted as a 'whistle-blower' - give us a call!

 

No wonder more and more people are deserting the MSM for Citizens' Media...

 

Of course, often this most vile of 'newspapers' takes a more subtle approach.

Ever so accidental pictures of favoured Establishment candidates such as Sir Philip Bailhache given much greater prominence, likewise with quotes/text than other candidates. Respected US journalists (shockingly monitored whilst a visitor to our island and then banned upon revealing what she was researching) stuck on the pages of Pravda when her visa is returned... ever so accidentally next to a big feature on illegal immigrants!

 

The truth is the Jersey Evening Pravda is both terrified of TRUTH and contemptuous of it in my opinion and, indeed, in that of so many others. Okay so we know they are desperate to bury this... But just consider our case against them and Broadlands for the horrible, cowardly lie that my wife (Deputy Shona Pitman) and I had increased our salary by 4 times with my entering politics.

 

Bad enough as this despicable lie was in itself given our income had decreased and, of course, a belated, desperate attempt to spin this as a reference to a mortgage muliplier ignored the ever so inconvenient little fact that that 4 x wasn't even the current rate.But if you have been reading their recent appallingly written stories from the likes of Richard Heath and Andy Sibcy (what happened to you guys?) relating to facts of the case and material sent to the UK Justice Ministry then you'll oddly NOT have been made aware of the following very interesting FACTS.

Never mind Article 6 and Human Rights - we're the Jersey Establishment!

 

Firstly. the editors and owners of the Pravda are desperate that you don't know the cold, hard FACT that this newspaper is seeking to gain financially from a court case that was NOT ECHR compliant. This being because our esteemed Bailiff's Office - whether through negligence or, it has to be asked, something more sinister,failed to ensure that Jurat John Le Breton who is an evidenced personal friend of a defendant company director did not obey the rules on conflict of interest and recuse himself.

 

Whatever could have been Le Breton's motive for not doing what was required, I ask?

The Jersey Evening Pravda - aided and abetted appallingly by BBC Jersey in this instance - claim they CAN'T report this for risk of getting into 'Big Trub'. Slightly odd then you might think how journalists in both the UK and beyond have reported what is cold, hard FACT? Obviously the Establishment tom-tom drums have been beating frantically to try and keep the Bailiff's Office's failures quiet at all costs.

 

Then secondly, the reality that Jurat John Le Breton is highlighted within the Establishment suppressed Sharp Report as refusing to look at EVIDENCE against his friend and Victoria College teaching colleague, predatory paedophile Andrew Jervis-Dykes. Not just this but then writing in support of this vile individual. And yet was then actually put forward and supported by Establishment grandees including a former Education Committee President to become a Jurat!

 

The role of a Jurat? Looking at and deciding on... EVIDENCE!

 

And then we have the little fact of the Jersey Evening Pravda trying to con their readers that it is only Shona and I who have written to the UK Justice Minister expressing their deep concern at this abuse of justice. Of course the truth is that a dozen prominent Islanders wrote in support of our challenging of this sickening farce. All but three current or past States Members.

 

Funny how the Jersey Evening Pravda don't tell their readers that?

 

Opting out of ECHR obligations on the excuse that Jersey 'is small' just isn't an option...

 

But Lord above, would YOU not be concerned if you found an individual like John Le Breton awarded the job by the Bailiff's Office of deciding on evidenced fact in your case?! Deciding on evidence that could impact your whole life? Yes, I repeat: no wonder the Jersey Evening Pravda want to keep this little scandal quiet. Conflicted to the hilt AND a proven record of being happy to look the other way on evidence!

Yet what possibly makes this even worse? The aforesaid fact that despite this appalling reality the Pravda and their lawyers still appear quite happy to try and gain financially on the back of court proceedings that as a conseqquence wouldn't stand up in a Third World country like Zimbabwe.

 

Or maybe its all a whole lot more sinister still?

Maybe Le Breton's being allowed to get away with sitting on our case against the JEP/Broadlands even when it is beyond question that he was impossibly conflicted wasn't just down to him? Maybe what is happening now isn't just a consequence of cynical opportunism? Maybe it was yet another manifestation of 'the Jersey Way'?

Maybe it was all part of a deliberate strategy?

 

After all, the Establishment can always use the get out/excuse 'well, if you are unhappy you can appeal!' Knowing that most ordinary people simply can't afford another £30,000 + nor should have to due to failings entirely down to the Bailiff's own Office probably don't even enter into their considerations.

Or maybe that too is all part of 'the Jersey Way' plan...

 

But to return to where I began with the selection of the Committee of Inquiry members to examine decades of States concealed child abuse: all i can say is thank God that this selection is in the hands of a decent man like States Greffier, Michael de la Haye!

If we can follow in this vein all the way through and keep the Establishment 'wreckers' at arms length maybe the inquiry will eventually be able to succeed. We must certainly do all we can to ensure this happens. More than enough children and adults have suffered already.

 

 

Keep the Faith. Yes, they can destroy us - but ultimately the Truth will always win in the end...

Truth - especially the BALD TRUTH - to paraphrase Corporal Jones - the Jersey Establishment and their mouthpieces just don't like it up 'em!

 

 

 

 



JERSEY CORRUPTION: UK GOVERNMENT FAILS CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATIONS ON 'GOOD GOVERNANCE'

 

 Where else but Jersey would an individual happy to look the other way on evidence against a predatory paedophile then be allowed to sit as a Jurat (lay judge) for 14 years?

Introduction to a betrayal

I publish below for readers a press release from Deputy Shona Pitman and myself. That we have reluctantly taken this step is due to the frightening reality that our island's 'justice' system has become a tool of oppression rather than arbiter of fairness and protection for all ordinary citizens.

The fact is that complaints alleging corruption being brought to a number of politicians can now simply no longer be ignored. The reported abuses are as diverse as the members of the public bringing them to us. Indeed, three of we 'backbenchers' are currently collating these for forthcoming action. Just as with our own experiences of Jersey 'justice' outlined below the facts presented are deeply disturbing.

Justice should not depend on wealth and influence. It should not only be consistent but should be guaranteed for all. Yet in Jersey today the  truth is that it is not.

For example, where else would you see the blatant double standards and abuse of process that saw the Bailiff's Office ruling that neither he, Michael Birt nor Deputy Bailiff, William Bailhache could sit on our case due to our political 'relationship' - yet simultaneously allow a Jurat who is a personal friend of a director of a powerful defendant, the owners of the Jersey Evening Post, to do just this? The appalling conflict of interest is clear to all. Yet the Bailiff and his Deputy seek to play this down. Why?

Incompetence? Negligence? Corruption? If two public figures with a comparative platform to protest can be abused in this way then what hope is there, we ask, for the vulnerable victims of decades of child abuse within States institutions? It is time that the UK government fulfilled its obligations and intervened to restore 'justice and good governance'.

Sadly, even with the added voice of other appalled States Members writing in our support thus far it has not. This situation cannot be allowed to continue. In the coming days we will be publishing a number of letters and documents relating to our own case. In the meantime please take a few minutes to watch the above video interview: the true cost of 21st Century 'Jersey justice'.

For the record it should also be noted here that in a move reminiscent of their post WW11 refusal to allow the Jersey Democratic Movement to advertise its manifesto for democratic reform, our island's only newspaper again refused to allow us to publicise our side of what is a deeply disturbing story of an abuse of justice. Just as they have done since the case. Why ever could that be, we ask?

PRESS RELEASE

Two Members of Jersey’s Parliament have today called for the UK government – which has overall responsibility to ensure ‘good governance’ in the Channel Islands - to urgently investigate what they describe as the ‘spiralling evidence of the wide-spread breakdown of law within the island’s justice system.’

Child Abuse Scandal

The Deputies say that ‘justice in the island’ (which came under the global spotlight with the unfolding of the ‘institutional’ child abuse scandal in 2008) ‘is being betrayed by a mixture of top level incompetence, corruption and intimidation. Much of this being a direct reaction from those in the island’s Establishment desperate to bury any dissenting opposition to getting to the truth about decades of child abuse cover-ups.’

‘Far from ensuring justice for the people of Jersey our Law Office has become the tool of choice for the clique at the apex of power to try to silence and, if necessary, drive from office or ruin those who dare challenge the established order; or persist in fighting the cause of the ever-growing number of people coming forward to complain of corruption; whether relating to child abuse or abuse of the legal process.’

This has already seen the former Chief of Police (the initiating officer of the child abuse investigations), Mr. Graham Power QPM forced from office by an illegal suspension that failed to result in any disciplinary charges. It has also seen a former Health Minister, at the centre of revelations about the abuse, ousted; and currently being silenced by a blatant misuse of the Data Protection Law within ‘top secret’ Royal Court hearings – all being paid for out of the tax coffers. Files and records relating to children abused within the Jersey care system have conveniently ‘gone missing’ from within both the Police system and government departments. Evidenced cases against abusers have inexplicably not been pursued by the island’s Law Office.

Banning of US Journalist

This manipulation of justice has even seen the contrived banning of a respected US journalist, Leah McGrath Goodman, from the island once it became apparent she was researching child abuse cover-ups and the island links to Jimmy Savile. A ban only lifted following the intervention of UK MP John Hemming and an international petition campaign initiated by Deputy Trevor Pitman himself.  Trevor Pitman states that along with two other political ‘backbench’ colleagues the number of complaints alleging corruption received from members of the public has reached deeply disturbing proportions in recent months.

Legal System - Corruption

These complaints have included alleged tampering with court transcripts; destruction of and refusal to look at evidence; inconsistency in sentencing; and even perjury and collusion between lawyers. The recently leaked 'Barton Report' of a disciplinary hearing involving police at the centre of the illegal bugging allegations in the ‘Drug Baron’ Curtis Warren case even revealed claims of falsified and unsigned statements being presented instead of original documents.

Yet the Deputies say the cold, hard evidence of the justice system being in desperate need of external investigation; and the depth of the obstacles facing victims of the cover-ups was only brought home to them after they pursued the island’s only, and hugely influential, pro-establishment newspaper, the Jersey Evening Post to court for defamation along with one of its millionaire clients. The newspaper and its estate agent client Broadlands had mocked the couple after Trevor Pitman’s election, falsely claiming they had increased their salary four-fold by entering politics when in reality they had taken a drop in income of thousands.

Jurat Supports Paedophile in Previous Job as Vice-Principle

‘It was shocking enough given the evidence that we then found ourselves losing the case,’ say the Deputies; ‘we subsequently then discovered that the Senior Jurat (lay judge) John Le Breton had been allowed by the Bailiff’s Office to sit in judgement of the case even though he was a personal friend of the newspaper’s longest-serving Director; the two regularly socialising together and even going to dinner at each other’s home. All of this being evidenced’.

An even bigger shock for the Deputies was the subsequent leaking of a government suppressed report (the 1999 Sharp Report) into another horrific child abuse scandal at the island’s Victoria College (an exclusive ‘fee-paying’ secondary school).  The report revealed that John Le Breton, as Vice Principle had refused to look at evidence against a friend and colleague, the predatory paedophile, Andrew Jervis-Dykes. 

He instead wrote in support of him claiming amongst other things that: Jervis-Dykes had served the College in an ‘outstandingly competent and conscientious way’; that unless police decided to prosecute, the abuse would be seen as ‘an unsubstantiated allegation’. Le Breton even appealed for the paedophile to be allowed to stay on at the school and if he had to resign be allowed to do so with ‘some dignity’. Incredibly Le Breton was put forward for the Jurat role by a politician who was both on the College’s Board of Governors at the time and a former president of the government’s Education Committee!’

The Deputies add, ‘when you bring this to the attention of the Chief Minister, Bailiff (Head of Judiciary and Legislature) and Deputy Bailiff, where both Crown Officers just happen to also be friends of the Jurat in question - you are told: ‘if you don’t like it – appeal’.  The Crown Officers know full well, that the above information not only came to light after our case and has implications far beyond this alone; but that it would necessitate at least another £30,000: monies that most ordinary people do not have.

Jurat Le Breton was allowed to sit by two successive Bailiff’s for a period of 14 years – including sitting on some child abuse cases until retiring just after the Pitman’s’ case. ‘This demonstrates just how unfit for purpose Jersey’s system of election and monitoring of Jurats is’, says Deputy Shona Pitman, adding ‘how in the 21^st Century can Jurats be elected in secret by only politicians and lawyers – many of whom will regularly be friends of those proposed?’

UK Justice Minister fails obligations of good governance

Yet even with the backing of around a dozen equally appalled fellow politicians and prominent justice campaigners, the Deputies say that the injustice they have been dealt is as yet failing to be adequately dealt with as it should by the UK justice Ministry. ‘The evidence in our case is overwhelming,’ say the Deputies, ‘just as it is in many other cases. Yet even when presented with all of the details (as outlined above) and letters of support from other concerned public figures, the excuse from Lord McNally has been that as “Jersey has its own justice system we can’t really interfere’’ (see enclosed correspondence).

‘Most absurd of all perhaps’, add the Deputies, ‘is that ‘the Justice Minister instead offers to ‘forward our concerns’ to the Bailiff – the very individual who has allowed all of this to happen! What this shows is the deeply troubling attitude to justice from those holding power within the justice system here and the UK Minister responsible for ‘good governance’ in a small and apparently ‘insignificant’ jurisdiction’.

‘At the bottom line’, conclude the Deputies, ‘if these failings are allowed to continue, if successive Bailiffs and other Crown Officers can allow an individual who refused to look at evidence against a predatory paedophile yet supported him – to sit as a Jurat for 14 years; including on subsequent cases of abuse what hope, we ask, have the victims of Jimmy Savile and the Haut de la Garenne child abuse scandal of getting justice here? What hope has any ordinary citizen who rocks the Establishment boat? The answer must be a resounding none. It is time the UK government stepped up to the plate and fulfilled its obligations. Should they not do so then it can only be concluded that Westminster must be complicit in all of this.’ Full story: www.thebaldtruthjerseyblogspot.com

For further information contact: Deputy Trevor Pitman 07797 824243/01534) 863436           Deputy Shona Pitman 07797 778561