Historic abuse investigation Head gives evidence
The man who headed up Jersey's Historic Abuse investigation is to give evidence to a special committee of inquiry.
A scrutiny panel will be quizing Lenny Harper over a video link with Scotland on Monday morning.
An earlier review was highly critical of his handling of the case, saying it was badly run, and grossly over-budget.
The police officer who headed up Jersey's historic abuse inquiry has been defending his actions.
An independent report was highly critical of Lenny Harper, claiming he mismanaged the investigation and ran up lavish bills.
A scrutiny panel is now reviewing the review.
This morning over an audio link with Scotland, Harper told his side of the story.
He claims this is the first opportunity he has had to put his case.
Today Lenny Harper was questioned about his financial management of the case, why he didn't give evidence in a review into the money side of the operation and who leaked confidential information on the case to the media.
Mr Harper said he would have been happy to give his side of the story, but was never asked. And he said, while he would be stupid to say he never made mistakes during the case, everything he did was for the sake of the victims.
Accountants BDO Alto were charged with looking into the finances of the investigation, and were highly critical of how the money was spent. But they never spoke to Lenny Harper, he says if they had, the conclusions would have been very different.
The former SIO said he was told to spend what he wanted during the investigation, although the Wiltshire report said they took that too literally.
Today he said they were always aware of what they were spending and never led a Hollywood lifestyle, as has been suggested.
He claimed that there was some ulterior motives for not interviewing him, and the real targets in the smear campaign against him was the victims.
The panel will meet again over the next few weeks to speak to BDO Alto and the Home Affairs Minister.
Harper defends his actions