Failure of critical thought in child abuse investigation in Jersey (UK)

[Big Les]

In the past year we in Britain had a steady flow of horrific finds from a former care home on the island of Jersey. The allegations stand (or otherwise) on their own, but it turns out that virtually every piece of physical "evidence" was bogus. The police and media between them managed to invent an entire "house of horrors" and the murder of up to five children.

If it weren't for the separate allegations, this outcome would be blackly humourous. Here's the history of the case and the latest development (which include the police chief in question being suspended):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/jersey/7724622.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7267632.stm

[geni]

Eh private eye was suggesting there was something amiss with the claims some time back.

One posible cause of the problems is Jersey's small size meaning that less experenced police are likey to be in charge.

[plumjam]

It's the kind of story which most people are going to be highly reluctant to pooh-pooh due to the fear that they may then be perceived as somehow defending these evil cabals of organised children's home child abuse and murder.
I seem to remember there was a similar bizarre unsubstantiated case on a Scottish Island several years back.
Funny how the island thing seems to take hold of the journalistic imagination.

[tomwaits]

I guess the SRA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_ritual_abuse) fraud is still around. I thought it had died years ago.

[Soapy Sam]

One might also ask questions about journalistic involvement.

[geni]

I guess the SRA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_ritual_abuse) fraud is still around. I thought it had died years ago.

Not SRA. Just generalised abuse.

[Checkmite]

I was under the impression (could be completely mistaken - I don't have a link) that the very first person to allege abuse at this particular place did not say anything about satanic ritual torture and murder, but just that he had been molested - and it was only later that police had found all this so-called "evidence" of evil cult activity. IF that is true, then thanks to the police and press's sensationalism, his claim - perhaps the only one that had any credibility - will likely be now discredited by association. Since thankfully nobody's lives have been ruined by false accusation in this case, I consider that the biggest tragedy here.

[Cuddles]

but it turns out that virtually every piece of physical "evidence" was bogus. The police and media between them managed to invent an entire "house of horrors" and the murder of up to five children.

I'm not convinced that's a reliable conclusion to reach from the evidence given. From the first linked article:
He says that we were claiming there was a murder... I always said all along that we had no evidence of homicide."

...

officers had never labelled the cellars "torture chambers".

"The victims were telling us that they were lowered down into these rooms, which we made clear in our media statements used to be the ground floor of that building,"

...

He added that Mr Warcup's comments came at "an opportune time" for the Jersey government, as a report into the island's care system by the Howard League for Penal Reform was due to be released on Friday.

The media may certainly have blown things out of proportion, but claiming that the evidence was all bogus and the whole thing was invented by the police seems to be going much too far based on the say-so of one person at just the time such claims would be beneficial to the government. To me, this looks far more like a combination of media scaremongering and political shenannigans than evidence of any wrongdoing by the police.

Edit: Also, I really don't see why many of these things are claimed as problems. Lots of bone fragments were found. The fact that the majority turned out not to be human or to be too old does not make it wrong to investigate. Possible blood was found, but it could not be identified as definitely being blood. Again, not a problem. People claimed to have been lowered into holes. Those holes existed. Labelling them "dungeons" may be an exaggeration, but isn't entirely inaccurate (assuming the claims are true of course). Maybe the PR could have been handled better, but the recent articles seem to be trying to demonise perfectly sensible police work for no apparent reason other than the investigation concluding that murder probably didn't happen there. If that hadn't been a possible conclusion, there would have been no point in the nivestigation to start with.

[The Atheist]

In the past year we in Britain had a steady flow of horrific finds from a former care home on the island of Jersey.

Ask Peter Ellis (http://www.peterellis.org.nz/).

15 years after the event, ten years in jail, and he's still guilty in the eyes of New Zealand law. Life completely destroyed, all because he's a poofter who enjoyed looking after little kids.

Bigots. Love 'em.

[Big Les]

Cuddles, I'm not saying it was wrong to investigate - sorry if my post gave that impression. I'm saying they appear to have spent much more time and money on this as a sort of well-meaning wish-fulfilment exercise, than they should have done. I'm saying this because all the evidence has turned out to be bunk despite all the time and effort involved, and because the Jersey authorities are saying that it's all been a waste of time. Surely the onus was on the police investigating to show that there had been such serious abuse? They've failed to do that. That's part of the story here.

I'm also saying the usual media raping of the story was made much worse by the way the police fed juicy tidbits to them, unmoderated. Teeth! Bones! Blood! For example, the fact that lots of bones were found is irrelevant if the only human ones turn out to be from antiquity.


It's the kind of story which most people are going to be highly reluctant to pooh-pooh due to the fear that they may then be perceived as somehow defending these evil cabals of organised children's home child abuse and murder.
I seem to remember there was a similar bizarre unsubstantiated case on a Scottish Island several years back.
Funny how the island thing seems to take hold of the journalistic imagination.

Same thing happened in Cleveland UK when I was a kid.

[Fiona]

Same thing happened in Cleveland UK when I was a kid.

Not quite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_child_abuse_scandal

[Big Les]

Trust me, I've read that. I didn't mean that it was the same as this case - I was replying to the comments about "sinister abuse cabals" and the old satanic abuse chestnut.

In case anyone thinks this was all about the media;

http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/100584/diff/5/6

Harper was more than happy to jump to the conclusion (multiple times IIRC) that they were finding evidence of dead children. He was mistaken every single time. That's the failure of critical thought I'm talking about.

[Darat]

One might also ask questions about journalistic involvement.


There was a good piece on one of the Radio 4 news programmes. They played the press conference statements of one of the finds, and then how it was reported in the media. The police spokeperson put in a lot of "could"s "may"s "unsure"s and so on, strangely they did not make it into the media reports.

[Fiona]

Trust me, I've read that. I didn't mean that it was the same as this case - I was replying to the comments about "sinister abuse cabals" and the old satanic abuse chestnut.

.

There was no component of "sinister abuse cabals" or "satanic abuse" at Cleveland.

[Cuddles]

Surely the onus was on the police investigating to show that there had been such serious abuse?

No. Absolutely not. The onus was on the police investigating to investigate. Starting with the conclusion is very much not the way to do it.

all the evidence has turned out to be bunk despite all the time and effort involved

Firstly, as noted in my last post, all the evidence was not bunk. Human remains were found. The holes that people claimed to have been put in were found. Possible blood was found. That the evidence may not be strong enough to support claims of mass murder does not mean it is bunk. Secondly, what do you mean by "despite" all the time and effort. It is the time and effort that allowed the evidence to be investigated. If they hadn't spent the time and effort, how would they know what the evidence actually shows?

I'm also saying the usual media raping of the story was made much worse by the way the police fed juicy tidbits to them, unmoderated. Teeth! Bones! Blood!

How do you know what was given to the media, or how it was presented?

For example, the fact that lots of bones were found is irrelevant if the only human ones turn out to be from antiquity.

And since that's not the case, what's your point? One 19th century, one possibly as late as the 1950s and one not reported (which I suspect means it's modern, but since the articles are all attacking the police now they don't want to mention that). That's hardly antiquity. And why would it matter if they were all ancient? Bones were found. This was reported. As long as the police were just saying that there were bones and they were being investigated, and not saying that they were definitely related to the investigation, I don't see the problem. I have no idea which of these two the police actually said, but unless you know something I don't, neither do you. It's hardly fair to criticise the police if this is simply yet another case of the media blowing things out of proportion.

[Checkmite]

The holes that people claimed to have been put in were found.

No. People described having been lowered into rooms beneath the floor; some covered voids were found under the floor. There's nothing to suggest the latter are the specific spaces referred to by the former. That is a baseless leap, especially since the floor had to be torn up and removed in order to have access to these voids (the solid floor constituting an obstruction which would prevent people from being lowered into a void located beneath it).