Care worker linked to Jersey abuse home (7.3.08)

Islington Tribune, 7th March 2008
by Tom Foot

DETECTIVES investigating sinister discoveries in a Jersey children’s home have not ruled out links with a former Islington paedophile ring.

The skull of a child was found in the grounds of Channel Islands youth hostel Haut de la Garenne last month and 160 alleged victims of abuse have since come forward.

Jersey police told the Tribune they were aware of a list of associates of Nicholas Rabet.

The former deputy superintendent of Conewood Street children’s home in Grosvenor Avenue, born and raised in Jersey, fled to Asia following an investigation into child abuse in 12 Islington care homes during the mid-1990s.

The 57-year-old committed suicide in 2006 awaiting sentence for multiple sex charges in Thailand.

The police probe follows revelations by investigative journalist Eileen Fairweather, who exposed the Islington child abuse scandal about links between Rabet and the current Jersey investigation. She believes care workers in Islington were grooming children for pornographic films and recruiting them for abuse in Jersey.

A Jersey police spokesman told the Tribune: “We are not naming suspects, either alive or dead, as a matter of policy. Names have been put forward to us and we will be adding them to our list of inquiries.”

Councillor Ursula Woolley, Islington’s chief executive for children and young people, said: “Should these investigations reveal any link with Islington, we will investigate and take action.”

Rabet was born in Jersey where he forged links with Neil Hocquart who was found guilty of child abuse with another social worker from Jersey, and together they regularly took children to a home in Sussex.

Police found indecent images of a 10-year-old boy once in the care of Islington Social Services.

Following an inquiry, Rabet fled to Thailand where he was later charged with abusing 30 boys, some as young as six. He died of a drugs overdose aged 57.

In a national Sunday newspaper, Ms Fairweather reported two other Jersey-born Islington care workers, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who are believed to have sent children to Rabet’s centre.

Many have not been prosecuted despite overwhelming evidence against them, she claims.

DC Cook, who investigated the Islington care homes’ abuse and is helping Jersey police with their investigations, told Ms Fairweather: “I’ve thought about Rabet all week.

“The hierarchy does not like these inquiries.”