CHILD PROTECTION IN JERSEY

Early day motion 1040, tabled 26 February 2008 by Austin Mitchell (Labour). Signed by 45 members.

That this House commends the campaign waged by Senator Stuart Syvret in Jersey to draw attention to the long-standing problem of child abuse in the island; condemns the attacks made on him by the establishment elite which controls Jersey's political and judicial institutions, attacks which after a long period of vilification and denigration eventually saw Syvret's removal from office; regrets that his warnings are now being proved true; and urges the Lord Chancellor, as Minister responsible for the good governance of Jersey, to take steps to ensure that independent judges and prosecutors, with no prior connection with Jersey, are appointed, without delay, to deal with any criminal or civil cases which may arise from the child abuse controversies, to ensure the necessary impartiality of the judicial processes, and that there is a judicially empowered independent enquiry with an outside Chair into child abuse and the concealment of child abuse in Jersey on the grounds that the political authorities have failed to deal with the problems and are seriously compromised by their repeated failures to act properly and their publicly stated concerns to protect the reputation of the island, so that were they to undertake the wide ranging investigation required, they would, effectively, need to put themselves on trial as well.

Signatures by party: Labour 29, Liberal Democrat 11, Independent 2, DUP 1, Plaid Cymru 1, Social Democratic and Labour Party 1.