Jersey Care Inquiry: Police Receive More Abuse Complaints

Jersey Evening Post
July 6, 2017

http://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2017/07/06/jersey-care-inquiry-police-receive-more-abuse-complaints/

ISLANDERS who report abuse can be confident that their complaints will be taken seriously, investigated and prosecuted professionally, Jersey’s Attorney General has said in the wake of the findings of the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry.

Advocate Robert MacRae – the Island’s chief prosecutor – has said that his department is committed to improving the Island’s criminal justice system.

He added that victims must be encouraged to report abuse and that, when they did, their allegations would be taken seriously and ‘all possible steps taken to bring offenders to justice’.

His comments come after the States police confirmed that they had received two further complaints about abuse, bringing the total number reported to the force since the release of the report on Monday to four.

Meanwhile, the UK’s own Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse has said it ‘notes with interest’ the Jersey inquiry’s report, which is highly critical of the Island’s past and present systems and concluded that children in care may still be at risk.

A spokesman for the UK inquiry – set up to investigate whether public bodies and other non-state institutions in England and Wales have taken seriously their responsibility to protect children from sexual abuse and to make recommendations for change – said: ‘This inquiry’s terms of reference specifically preclude it from addressing allegations relating to events in Crown Dependencies, such as Jersey.

'The inquiry though notes the Independent Jersey Care Report and its recommendations with interest.’