Children in Jersey “will be targeted” by criminals looking to exploit them and authorities cannot afford to be “complacent”, the children’s commissioner has said.
Dr Carmel Corrigan said the island was “not immune from this kind of exploitation”.
Dr Corrigan was commenting in a Scrutiny hearing today following what she described as an “incredibly sad” case in which more than 40 schoolchildren in Jersey were coerced into delivering nearly £2 million worth of drugs.
In May this year, young ringleaders Elijah Michael Albert McManus (20), Monica Aguiar Nobrega (20), Rory George Ribeiro (19) and Joseph James Barratt (20) were all given youth detention sentences of between two and three years for their part in the operation.
Ringleader Mohammed Babrul Hussain (31), from Birmingham, was sent to prison in 2024 for seven-and-a-half years.
Many of the school children caught up in the operation are now receiving specialist safeguarding support from the authorities.
“These children are victims, and therefore need to be treated as such,” said Dr Corrigan.
The “principal lesson” from the case was that “we absolutely cannot be complacent”, she told the Children’s, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel.
Dr Corrigan added: “This activity happens in the island and our children will be targeted.
“There will be attempts of exploitation, and we need to be extremely aware of that.”
Lessons learned from the case by the police, customs, and the Children, Young People, Education and Skills Department would be “critical” in how to identify, recognise and address the issue, she said.
Dr Corrigan also said it was “worrying” that 15% of boys in Years 8, 10 and 12 would “probably or definitely not tell someone” if they were offered money or gifts to do something wrong, according to the latest Children and Young People’s Survey. For girls, this figure was 11%.