Sun, Sea and Satan

I have just watched "Sun, Sea and Satan : Haut de la Garenne, Jersey, An Uncensored Cutting Edge Adult Documentary by Award Winning Film Director Bill Maloney".(www.pienmashfilms.com)

Bill appears as the presenter/director, and he makes it clear from the start that he is driven by anger. His reaction to the Haut de la Garenne allegations is emotional and deeply personal. I suspect the film may have only a peripheral role in the cause of justice for the victims, as it does not attempt to provide a body of rigorous evidence. Instead, his approach is based on the belief that `sometimes simple things can betray everything', and this brings some moments of devastating directness.

Nowhere is this clearer than in his repeated visits to a little shrine of ornaments in the garden of a very comfortable looking bungalow. Including both human and animal forms, this display - openly sited beside a busy road - could at a casual glance be taken for a quirky take on the nativity scene. But nothing could be further from the truth: one of the `ornaments' is a larger-than-life statue of a very young child with an enormous phallus in his/her mouth.

This is quite clearly 3-dimensional child pornography and surely illegal. I cannot imagine this happening anywhere in the UK without public disgust and legal action. Yet here in Jersey the owner is happy to flaunt his sickening display in a defiant statement that says, "I am untouchable." Maloney is blunt about what he would like to do to the person responsible, but does not reveal their identity. The house, though, he names as `Charnwood'.

As if this were not shocking enough, the film demonstrates that the house is a mere two minutes' drive from Haut de la Garenne. This little piece of public paedofilia has been on blatant display throughout the investigations at the former children's home, and barely a mile away. Investigating officers and members of the public must have passed it on a daily basis. Truly it beggars belief. It is a terrifying cameo that speaks volumes on how it may have been possible for a culture of abuse to have existed on the island for decades.