Not So Sharp

Interesting facts coming out of the Sharp report; note the "spin" in the comment that the "head teacher and deputy had been punished by dismissal". Or, as the story also says "The pair subsequently resigned." There is considerable difference between being allowed to resign and being punished by dismissal. Either one or the other is true.

 

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http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2008/02/27/107397/jersey-child-abuse-allegations-multiply.html

 

Further child abuse allegations are emerging from Jersey following the discovery of a child's remains in a former children's home on the island.

Former health and social services minister Stuart Syvret has made public a confidential report detailing abuse allegations at a college in 1992.

The report written in 1999 by Stephen Sharp, the former chief education officer for Buckinghamshire, showed the college failed to act effectively to stop the abuse of pupils by a teacher. 

It said: "The most serious mistake made by the college was the handling of the 1992 disclosure by a pupil of abuse [by the teacher]. The principal responsibility for this lies with the headmaster, but he was not the only member of staff involved."

The handling of the complaint was "more consistent with protecting a member of staff and the college's reputation in the short-term than safeguarding the best interests of the pupil."

Syvret's disclosure came as a number of former children's home residents from the island spoke to the media claiming they were raped, drugged and flogged.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/gruesome-finds-at-islands-abuse-home-1300405.html

Maths teacher Andrew Jervis-Dykes was jailed in April 1999 for indecently assaulting six pupils at Victoria College where he plied them with alcohol then abused them in their beds during Naval Combined Cadet Force yachting trips between 1984 and 1993.

According to an independent report into the case, allegations about Jervis-Dykes surfaced in 1992 and 1994.

Both times, the school's headmaster Jack Hydes failed to notify the police or investigate further, the report said.

Former chief education officer of Buckinghamshire, Stephen Sharp, who conducted the inquiry, said Mr Hydes instructed his staff not to discuss the allegations.

He accused Mr Hydes and his deputy Piers Bakers -- who was in charge of pupils alongside Jervis-Dykes on one yachting trip -- of putting the interests of the college and supporting a colleague above protecting its pupils. The pair subsequently resigned.

Procedure

"If the correct procedure had been followed, it is most likely that Jervis-Dykes would have been suspended and perhaps arrested in 1992,'' Mr Sharp said.

The Education Minister, Senator Mike Verbert, said the head teacher and deputy had been punished by dismissal.

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http://www.thisisjersey.com/news/shownewsarticle.pl?ArticleID=101189

EDUCATION Minister Mike Vibert has refuted accusations that the department was involved in covering up child abuse.

Speaking to the media on the steps of the States Chamber yesterday, Senator Mike Vibert said that his department protects children at the highest level.

'I regret that there was a historic case of child abuse at one of the Island's schools 'Victoria College', which was uncovered in the early 1990s before I was elected as a States member.

'Once reported to the Education Department of the day this incidence of abuse was taken seriously. The man responsible was successfully prosecuted and subsequently imprisoned.'

The Education Minister made the statement after Senator Stuart Syvret gave copies of a leaked report into the Jervis Dykes child abuse scandal to the media yesterday.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/27/njersey127.xml

Why documents in Jersey remain secret

By Gordon Rayner

Last Updated: 2:39am GMT 27/02/2008

 

The Freedom of Information Act gives journalists and members of the public the right to demand access to public documents in mainland Britain. Jersey, however, has its own independent legal system, with no such freedom of information laws. It means the island's government, the States of Jersey, is under no legal obligation to release details relating to the child abuse scandal or any other matter of public concern. In 2000 the States adopted a voluntary Code of Practice on Public Access to Official Information, which states that the public should be given access, "wherever reasonably possible", to information held by the States.

However, there is no provision under the Code for people to apply for information held by the police, hospitals, or other public bodies (in the UK all publicly-funded bodies, from the BBC to local councils, are bound by the Freedom of Information Act).

The type of information which islanders in Jersey can access is also limited; government committee agendas and minutes should be disclosed, for example, but documents supporting an agenda item do not have to be given out.

And the Code states that whilst information should be given out, "files or documents" are not expected to be made public.

When the Code was revised in 2004, the senator who argued most strongly for its scope to be widened was Stuart Syvret, the man who later lost his job as health minister when he blew the whistle on the island's child abuse scandal.

Jersey has now drafted its own Freedom of Information Act, similar to the UK law, which is due to be debated later this year before it can become law.

As a crown dependency, all of Jersey's laws must be given royal assent by the Queen, though in practice they are ratified by the Privy Council, under the guidance of Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary. The Privy Council is also Jersey's highest court of appeal.

The Channel Islands have never been part of the UK and have no representation in Parliament.

Their connection to Britain dates back to 1066, when the Duke of Normandy (which included the islands) became William I of England. King John lost Normandy in 1204, but the islands decided to remain loyal to him because he agreed to allow them their independence, which they have kept ever since.

The Bailiwick of Guernsey, which comprises the Channel Islands of Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm and several smaller islands, has no freedom of information provision either. Last year Stuart Falla, the Deputy Chief Minister, said there was "not enough of a problem" to warrant a freedom of information act.