News and Fiction in the World

There is a new blogger around at:

http://electionsjersey2008.blogspot.com

On the latest News of the World story, he comments:

Of course the venerable Stuart Syvret immediately jumps to the conclusion that a News of the World report is factually accurate and rants that we should all "read it and weep".

I do agree (although not with the tone) that news stories should not be taken as factual, and should be sifted. This blogger dismisses it, and that is just as bad. Any historian knows that no source should be treated as wholly reliable, but not dismissed out of hand unless there is compelling evidence to suggest fraud. I don't think the News of the World has made this up, but they may well have embellished the truth.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/1307_jersey.shtml

For instance, in the News of the World story, it is said:

A SHOCK secret police report into the Jersey House of Hell children's home reveals youngsters there WERE murdered then BURNED in a furnace to COVER UP the atrocities.

I think we can discount the notion that any police report would be so definite. Certainly, based on the forensic reports, the data is going to be circumstantial, and while it might point to a strong possibility of murder, no report is going to be so definite.

Forensic teams also found STRANDS OF NYLON which they have concluded came from the head of a broom.
And, because those type of nylon brooms were only used in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the discovery helped officers to put a date on when the bones were swept into the soil floor.

This seems to be genuine information, but note that the Telegraph is more circumspect about it:

Police are also examining strands of nylon recovered from the cellars, which they believe came from the head of a broom only used in the 1960s and 70s. If confirmed, this would add weight to the theory that the burned human remains were concealed in the cellars at around the same time.

and returning to the News of the World:

The problem has been identifying the children that went missing over the years. No records were kept of who came and left that place. Kids were shipped to the home from all over the UK and were never heard of again.

This seems to be more of a sweeping generalisation, especially, when later on in the article, it shows the result from one mainland authority, which contradicts some of that:

Lack of records still hampers police. But we can reveal that one mainland authority, Birmingham City Council, has presented the Jersey force with a list of children who were sent to the home but went missing. Although four have now been tracked down, after a mammoth search one still remains unaccounted for.

Then we have this:

Earlier this year we also uncovered allegations that pictures of BABIES being raped were taken in the care home and circulated by an international child porn ring. Experts suspect the home was responsible for many of the seedy network's 9,000 sick pictures, discovered in an infamous haul in Holland in the Nineties. It was dubbed the Zandvoort stash, after the town where it was found-but the source studio was never uncovered.

I'd give this no credence at all. It is pure speculation, and as far as I can see this originates from the News of the World; it is not in any police report they mention - although they cleverly give the impression it forms part of the same story by use of the words "experts".

In a separate case recently investigators were frustrated by the island's legal authorities who refused to charge a couple accused of beating their foster children with cricket bats. Despite being told by lawyers and an honorary police officer who reviewed the case that there was sufficient evidence to go ahead, the charges were blocked at the 11th hour. A police source said: "The argument for not charging this couple was that their natural children have said they're of good character. "The detailed statements of all the people who claim they were physically assaulted seem to count for nothing."

It would be interesting to know if this "police source" really exists. The argument mentioned seems extremely slight for not going ahead with the charges, and again I think there may well be embellishment here to cover up an absence of the real reasons.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2299534/Jersey-care-home-abuse-police-believe-children's-bodies-were-burned.html