The college announced last week that it had appointed a child protection expert to examine ‘past decades’, but it has now become clear that Joanna Nicolas’ inquiry will cover a much longer and later period, effectively excluding only the present day.
It has also been established that the inquiry will look into how the college dealt with cases of abuse which it knew about at the time, including incidents which it yesterday strongly denied covering up in the past and recently, following claims in a national newspaper that former pupils’ disclosures were dismissed not only in the 1970s and 80s, but again in 2012, 2021 and last year.
The college would not provide the full terms of reference of its inquiry and refused a request for an interview with Ms Nicolas, but provided some additional information when asked questions by the Guernsey Press.
‘The review relates to non-recent abuse of all kinds,’ said a college spokesman, when asked if the alleged abuse was sexual, physical or emotional.
‘Ms Nicolas has been asked to conduct a review into any non-recent abuse cases at the college by teachers or others in the college who were responsible for caring for the children at the time, alongside how these cases were handled.
‘Any current safeguarding concerns should be raised with the school via our safeguarding policy, which includes details on how to report any concerns. If concerns relate to non-current matters then they should contact Ms Nicolas.’
It is understood that the college was initially inclined to contain its inquiry to many decades ago. However, allegations of abuse are known to have triggered safeguarding investigations at the school much more recently than that, and it received advice to keep the period of the inquiry more open-ended.
Details of sexual and physical abuse disclosures from former pupils were published yesterday in The Observer newspaper. It reported allegations from three former boarders at the college who claim they were among a group of at least 18 boys abused or groomed for abuse by Dr Morley Stuart, who taught classics at the school in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including while alone with him at his home.
It is known that at least two former college teachers were still hosting boys at their homes, sometimes alone, into the 1990s and 2000s, and the college declined yesterday to say whether or when that practice had stopped.
States committees said they had no involvement in drafting the terms of reference of the inquiry. The police said that all such decisions were made by the college.
‘While we have offered advice on the handling of criminal offences, all decisions relating to the scope of the review, including the specific terms of reference, have been made by the college and its board,’ said a police spokesman.