“Systematic abuse” report filed 17 months before police abuse case opened - detective

Friday 23 October 2015

A report recommending a major investigation into historical child abuse at Haut de la Garenne was filed 17 months before officers started work on the case, a detective told the abuse inquiry yesterday.

Sergeant Peter Hewlett told the inquiry that he filed the report while acting as Detective Inspector for the CID and Family Protection Units in April 2006 – the investigation finally began in September 2007 and went public two months later.

And he also said that his view was that abuse was not down to isolated incidents, but had involved abusers colluding together.

“Certainly the statement that I had read in the inquiry would lead me to believe that it was more organised than sporadic,” he said, “so I think it was potentially systematic.”

Sgt Hewlett said that the prosecution against paedophile Thomas Hamon – who died while awaiting sentence for abusing eight boys aged between ten and 15 between 1964 and 1989 – had led to evidence coming forth that suggested an investigation should take place.

In a report to his senior officer, Andre Bonjour, he wrote that the report would have to cover up to 35 years of activity and would start with Haut de la Garenne, and possibly focus on other childrens’ homes too.

He wrote: “Rumours have been rife within the island for many years that Haut de la Garenne was notorious for the sexual, emotional and physical abuse, allegedly handed out to the residents, the majority of whom were in later life to become involved with the police on a regular basis.

“It is also a fact that many have taken their own life as they struggled to cope from a day to day basis.”

Asked about the report by lawyers acting for the inquiry, Sgt Hewlett said: “In my opinion there was only one decision to make and that was to launch an investigation into what had been taking place at Haut de la Garenne.

“That was my opinion, that was my gut feeling as a cop I’ve gained over the years - that there had to be some transparency once and for all, a proper full and thorough investigation had to take place.”

But he never received a response to his report, despite asking for updates from Mr Bonjour – who he described as “a model professional”, and who he praised for his work ethic and dedication.

Later, Sgt Hewlett was interviewed by the South Yorkshire Police about why his report and scoping document had not been acted on sooner – and he said that he fought their attempts to try to blame Mr Bonjour.

“I got the impression that they wanted me to say that Mr Bonjour shredded the report, swept it under the carpet or just discarded it, when I had no evidence of that,” he said.

“To me that seems a direction that they were heading in and I felt, at the time, I was being questioned as a suspect rather than as a witness and that’s the feeling I had.”

He said that after his interview, the South Yorkshire Police had written up a statement for him with “words to the effect that Andre Bonjour had shredded the report or pushed it under the carpet, but I said nothing of the sort”.

Mr Hewlett said that he rewrote the statement to reflect what he actually said, and returned it to them.