A group of former pupils told The Observer newspaper that they were dismissed and obstructed in 2012, 2021 and last year when they approached the college with disclosures of sexual and physical abuse.
The college, which has just launched an inquiry into historical abuse, told the Guernsey Press yesterday that it ‘strongly disputes’ the claims of a cover up and insisted that former pupils’ disclosures were always treated ‘with the utmost seriousness, followed up by the school and reported to the police’.
Hours earlier, The Observer reported that the college had announced the inquiry only after victims of the alleged abuse presented the school with a series of information requests under data protection laws.
One of those requests led to the then chairman of the college board, Dean of Guernsey Tim Barker, who is still a director of the college, sending an internal email last October which the newspaper claimed showed him appearing to deflect responsibility for the abuse perpetrated at the school and trying to frustrate the victim’s bid for information.
In the email, which the college later mistakenly shared, Mr Barker said: ‘Any sort of investigation that we might attempt would inevitably be flawed and would be a distraction from other priorities (although I do not think that the last comment should be disclosed to the complainant).’
In the same email chain, an unnamed partner from the college’s law firm was quoted advising the school that it was ‘not a suitable step’ to provide information requested by the victim and to ‘close down the correspondence’.
The college said last night that it was appropriate for Mr Barker to seek legal advice in the email exchange, which concerned the school’s attempt to investigate allegations of abuse, and that his comments appeared insensitive only when taken out of context.
It added that Mr Barker had since offered the complainant an unqualified apology and would not be removed as a director ahead of his planned departure as the island’s dean in July, just ahead of his 70th birthday, when he is required by law to retire from the role.
‘A number of concerns were brought to the college’s attention by a former pupil last year,’ said a spokesperson for the college.
‘The paucity of school records from the time and the fact that the alleged perpetrator was no longer alive, together with the lack of any other known disclosures concerning them, made it difficult to establish any facts around these matters.
‘The college nonetheless took their disclosures seriously and encouraged the former pupil to report their concerns to the police and encouraged any other survivors of whom they were aware to do the same.
‘It was never the intention of the college to cover up or diminish the seriousness of the complainant’s disclosures.’