The Jersey Child Abuse Investigation and the EVRD deployment.

[Mr Moderator]

Bungled Jersey child abuse probe branded a '£20million shambles'

The bungled inquiry into allegations of child abuse and murder at a Jersey care home will cost taxpayers on the island at least £20million, a Mail on Sunday investigation reveals today.

Lenny Harper, the controversial detective who initially headed Operation Rectangle, also spent thousands of pounds of public money staying in four-star hotels and eating in some of London’s top restaurants.

His handling of the Haut de la Garenne children’s home probe has been described as
 a ‘shambles’ by Mick Gradwell, the detective drafted in to replace Harper.

The evidence of lavish expenses claims and extraordinary financial waste includes paying £93,000 to Martin Grime, the handler of the sniffer dog Eddie, who was charged with the grim task of finding children’s bodies that were supposedly entombed in concrete in the institution, known as ‘the Jersey House of Horrors’, which closed in 1986.

To date the ‘human remains’ that triggered the storm surrounding the case have turned out to be a piece of coconut shell.


www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1217863/Bungled-Jersey-child-abuse-probe-branded-20million-shambles.html

[VIXTE]

• After being examined by experts from the British Museum, a fragment thought to have been from a skull turned out to be a piece of Victorian coconut shell.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/jersey/7723860.stm

[ferryman]

A human identified what he took to be a skull.

Eddie was tasked to test said (assumed!) skull, much as he was tasked to test the ignition card in PdL and reacted. 

Said "skull" was examined in a laboratory and found to be a coconut.

The most you can say in defence of the dog is that there might have been some scent in the surrounds incidental to the coconut within Eddie's scent-range that he alerted to.

If so, that would be Grime's incompetence, because he should have had the dog screen the area before the coconut was tested for prior scents.

Is right, Vixie

[pathfinder73]

A human identified what he took to be a skull.

Eddie was tasked to test said (assumed!) skull, much as he was tasked to test the ignition card in PdL and reacted. 

Said "skull" was examined in a laboratory and found to be a coconut.

The most you can say in defence of the dog is that there might have been some scent in the surrounds incidental to the coconut within Eddie's scent-range that he alerted to.

If so, that would be Grime's incompetence, because he should have had the dog screen the area before the coconut was tested for prior scents.

Is right, Vixie

How does a piece of skull that someone said looks like a coconut turn into one? A child's skull containing 1.6% collagen. Collagen is found in mammals not in coconuts!

Eddie wasn't put in the boot! As soon as Eddie alerted to scent coming out of the car door Grime put Keela in the car.

[Serendipity]

As we've discussed on other threads, he also reacted to sex clean-up tissues in Jersey, which Grime considered to be within his training parameters.

Eddie was not alerting to the semen on the tissues, he was alerting to blood on them, as was Keela.  Both dogs alerted to the tissues at VT/9. As both dogs were deconditioned during training to alert to semen, urine and faeces, they were therefore alerting to blood.

From Op Rectange Report:

http://voiceforprotest.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/operation-rectangle-summary-report.html

'VT / 9 Trench and gun emplacement containing small personnel shelter. Forensic examination revealed recently deposited tissues that appeared to have been used to ‘clean up following sexual intercourse’. It would appear that the shelter had been used as a venue for courting couples. This alert is within the trained parameters of the dog’s repertoire and is a satisfactory explanation of the alert.
Base of an oak tree planted as a memorial to the two sons of Mr Hamon, Flat 2 Delborgho Lodge, Upper Clarendon Road, St Hellier. The cremated remains of the two adult sons had been previously scattered just under the surface of the ground and the tree planted as a permanent memorial together with a plaque. This alert is within the trained parameters of the dog’s repertoire and is a satisfactory explanation of the alert.
There being no other points of interest, intelligence led excavation of the site commenced to locate and investigate defensive positions by excavation, forensic examination and canine screening.'

And

'V/T 9 Re-enforced concrete machine gun post and protective trench, personnel shelter attached. Earth and debris removed by hand and plant machinery to allow access.

The forensic strategy was implemented with the following results.

EVRD – positive indication.
SOCO visual – positive.
Blood dog - positive indication.
Visual – positive
UV – negative (items removed prior to screening).
Quasar - negative

Positive indications confirmed as being recently deposited tissues used to clean up after sex by unknown persons. Offences not suspected at this stage. Retained as exhibit should there be future reports of offences. There will be no forensic submission at this stage.'

Eddie was trained as follows - source http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MARTIN_GRIMES_RIGATORY.htm

'The dog EVRD is trained using whole and disintegrated material, blood, bone tissue, teeth, etc. and decomposed cross-contaminants. The dog will recognize all or parts of a human cadaver. He is not trained for 'live' human odours; no trained dog will recognize the smell of 'fresh blood'. They find, however, and give the alert for dried blood from a live human being.'

And Keela - source http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MARTIN_GRIMES_RIGATORY.htm

'The dog that alerts to human blood is trained exclusively for this purpose, and includes its components, plasma, red cells, white cells and platelets. Given the nature of the training, the dog will not alert to urine, saliva, semen sweat, nasal secretion, vaginal secretion or human skin unless these are mixed with blood.'

Eddie and Keela were used in tandem as a failsafe method to eliminate any chance of false positives. Eddie's original training was to human blood and latterly and mostly to cadaver scent using pigs and human cadavers and Keela purely to detect human blood.

Ergo Eddie would be sent in first to a location as part of an investigation to check and if he alerted then Keela was sent in to see if she also alerted. If Keela also alerted then the alert was to blood as that is all that Keela is trained to detect. If she did not alert too then Eddie was alerting to cadaver scent.

In relation to the tissues found at VT/9 in HDLG both dogs alerted which means there was blood them, no matter how small it was and both dogs detected it as that is how they were trained. Both dogs alert = blood whereas Eddie on his own and no alert from Keela = cadaver scent. The tandem working of the dogs is what made them so reliable.

Martin's Rogatory statement http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MARTIN_GRIMES_RIGATORY.htm and the Op Rectangle Report http://voiceforprotest.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/operation-rectangle-summary-report.html detail that all of the above is within the trained parameters of the dog’s repertoire.

[Serendipity]

And to a coconut shell :)))

What is always ignored here is that bones were originally found in the location of the alleged 'coconut' by workmen who were laying the concrete but those bones were binned at the time.  Those bones will have also have been in contact with said 'coconut' ergo Eddie was correct to alert to the location.  Oh and PS coconut does not contain 1.6% collagen.

[ferryman]

How does a piece of skull that someone said looks like a coconut turn into one? A child's skull containing 1.6% collagen. Collagen is found in mammals not in coconuts!

Eddie wasn't put in the boot! As soon as Eddie alerted to scent coming out of the car door Grime put Keela in the car.

Collagen is a myth.

I can't find the exact quote from the official Wiltshire report.

But I know Carana knows where it is, because she was the one who first found it.

A technician of 30 years' experience worked with the "skull" and noted that it behaved exactly like wood.  He was the one who determined, definitively, that the "skull" was actually a coconut.

Eddie alerted to a coconut.

[jassi]

Collagen is a myth.

I can't find the exact quote from the official Wiltshire report.

But I know Carana knows where it is, because she was the one who first found it.

A technician of 30 years' experience worked with the "skull" and noted that it behaved exactly like wood.  He was the one who determined, definitively, that the "skull" was actually a coconut.

Eddie alerted to a coconut.

So we are led to believe - frightfully convenient for all those Jersey senators   

[Serendipity]

Collagen is a myth.

I can't find the exact quote from the official Wiltshire report.

But I know Carana knows where it is, because she was the one who first found it.

A technician of 30 years' experience worked with the "skull" and noted that it behaved exactly like wood.  He was the one who determined, definitively, that the "skull" was actually a coconut.

Eddie alerted to a coconut.

You totally avoid the fact that bones were previously found in the exact same location, why is that?  I doubt it was coconut but if it was, the following explantion makes perfect sense to me:

"Coconut husk is wood and wood will absorb odours. If the husk was in the presence of HR material for years it will actually build up and retain large amounts of odour as a cumulative effect. The fact that the coconut is not human does not matter. It's the odour the dog alerts to, not the material on which the odour is deposited."

[ferryman]

You totally avoid the fact that bones were previously found in the exact same location, why is that?  I doubt it was coconut but if it was, the following explantion makes perfect sense to me:

"Coconut husk is wood and wood will absorb odours. If the husk was in the presence of HR material for years it will actually build up and retain large amounts of odour as a cumulative effect. The fact that the coconut is not human does not matter. It's the odour the dog alerts to, not the material on which the odour is deposited."

Totally avoid?

The coconut was examined by a technician of vast experience and determined to be a coconut.

What relevance is there in what else might have been around?

[Serendipity]

Totally avoid?

The coconut was examined by a technician of vast experience and determined to be a coconut.

What relevance is there in what else might have been around?

Oh dear, you really do not understand how the dogs work do you?  Eddie alerted to a location where bones had previously lay and you ask what relevance there is?

[Serendipity]

Totally avoid?

The coconut was examined by a technician of vast experience and determined to be a coconut.

What relevance is there in what else might have been around?

Repeating this as you avoided making any comment in regard to it :)

I doubt it was coconut but if it was, the following explantion makes perfect sense to me:

"Coconut husk is wood and wood will absorb odours. If the husk was in the presence of HR material for years it will actually build up and retain large amounts of odour as a cumulative effect. The fact that the coconut is not human does not matter. It's the odour the dog alerts to, not the material on which the odour is deposited."

Surely the above makes some kind of sense to you if you still insist on believing it was a coconut given that the area the alleged coconut was found was where bones had previously been found?

[Carana]

Collagen is a myth.

I can't find the exact quote from the official Wiltshire report.

But I know Carana knows where it is, because she was the one who first found it.

A technician of 30 years' experience worked with the "skull" and noted that it behaved exactly like wood.  He was the one who determined, definitively, that the "skull" was actually a coconut.

Eddie alerted to a coconut.

Not sure what you're looking for, Ferryman (I'm just skim-reading).

Is it this?


From the Wiltshire report:


5.6.20 X (ORAU) reported that the Jersey sample only had 0.6 % N. Ordinarily this is too low to yield extractable collagen of any quality. Despite our concerns, X requested that a fuller chemical treatment be undertaken, in an attempt to produce a result, but although some material was extracted it was demonstrably not collagenous based on the analysis of the texture of the material, the C:N atomic ratios and the similarly significant lack of nitrogen, so the sample was formally failed and the States of Jersey Police notified.

5.6.21 A further analysis of the bone sample later the following week by
X and X (British Museum faunal specialist and one of our collaborators in work undertaken in the ORAU) concluded that the sample was not in fact bone, but was almost certainly wood.


http://www.gov.je/Government/Pages/StatesReports.aspx?ReportID=561
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=1999.20

[Carana]

Eddie was not alerting to the semen on the tissues, he was alerting to blood on them, as was Keela.  Both dogs alerted to the tissues at VT/9. As both dogs were deconditioned during training to alert to semen, urine and faeces, they were therefore alerting to blood.

From Op Rectange Report:

http://voiceforprotest.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/operation-rectangle-summary-report.html

'VT / 9 Trench and gun emplacement containing small personnel shelter. Forensic examination revealed recently deposited tissues that appeared to have been used to ‘clean up following sexual intercourse’. It would appear that the shelter had been used as a venue for courting couples. This alert is within the trained parameters of the dog’s repertoire and is a satisfactory explanation of the alert.
Base of an oak tree planted as a memorial to the two sons of Mr Hamon, Flat 2 Delborgho Lodge, Upper Clarendon Road, St Hellier. The cremated remains of the two adult sons had been previously scattered just under the surface of the ground and the tree planted as a permanent memorial together with a plaque. This alert is within the trained parameters of the dog’s repertoire and is a satisfactory explanation of the alert.
There being no other points of interest, intelligence led excavation of the site commenced to locate and investigate defensive positions by excavation, forensic examination and canine screening.'

And

'V/T 9 Re-enforced concrete machine gun post and protective trench, personnel shelter attached. Earth and debris removed by hand and plant machinery to allow access.

The forensic strategy was implemented with the following results.

EVRD – positive indication.
SOCO visual – positive.
Blood dog - positive indication.
Visual – positive
UV – negative (items removed prior to screening).
Quasar - negative

Positive indications confirmed as being recently deposited tissues used to clean up after sex by unknown persons. Offences not suspected at this stage. Retained as exhibit should there be future reports of offences. There will be no forensic submission at this stage.'

Eddie was trained as follows - source http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MARTIN_GRIMES_RIGATORY.htm

'The dog EVRD is trained using whole and disintegrated material, blood, bone tissue, teeth, etc. and decomposed cross-contaminants. The dog will recognize all or parts of a human cadaver. He is not trained for 'live' human odours; no trained dog will recognize the smell of 'fresh blood'. They find, however, and give the alert for dried blood from a live human being.'

And Keela - source http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MARTIN_GRIMES_RIGATORY.htm

'The dog that alerts to human blood is trained exclusively for this purpose, and includes its components, plasma, red cells, white cells and platelets. Given the nature of the training, the dog will not alert to urine, saliva, semen sweat, nasal secretion, vaginal secretion or human skin unless these are mixed with blood.'

Eddie and Keela were used in tandem as a failsafe method to eliminate any chance of false positives. Eddie's original training was to human blood and latterly and mostly to cadaver scent using pigs and human cadavers and Keela purely to detect human blood.

Ergo Eddie would be sent in first to a location as part of an investigation to check and if he alerted then Keela was sent in to see if she also alerted. If Keela also alerted then the alert was to blood as that is all that Keela is trained to detect. If she did not alert too then Eddie was alerting to cadaver scent.

In relation to the tissues found at VT/9 in HDLG both dogs alerted which means there was blood them, no matter how small it was and both dogs detected it as that is how they were trained. Both dogs alert = blood whereas Eddie on his own and no alert from Keela = cadaver scent. The tandem working of the dogs is what made them so reliable.

Martin's Rogatory statement http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MARTIN_GRIMES_RIGATORY.htm and the Op Rectangle Report http://voiceforprotest.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/operation-rectangle-summary-report.html detail that all of the above is within the trained parameters of the dog’s repertoire.

Where has it been stated that either dog was desensitised to other decomposing substances? I have no problem with Keela, as she trained solely on human blood, but Eddie's training - in the absence of any information to the contrary - seems to have been able to react to a wider spectrum.

Unless you have information to the contrary, I'm not aware of any recorded incident in which Keela was sent in before Eddie aside from the frankly bizarre clothes episode in the Lagos gym. If it is indeed normal practice for Eddie to be sent in to detect the "haystack" before sending in Keela to detect "the needle", then Eddie's reaction to the sex tissues would have occurred prior to Keela's. The point being, if that is the case, is that Grime had stated that the clean-up tissues were within Eddie's repertoire before Keela's reaction. If there is evidence to the contrary, then I'd be happy to read it and revise my understanding of the issue. If that is not what occurred, then the situation is not clear, IMO.

[ferryman]

 
5.6.20 X (ORAU) reported th

Not sure what you're looking for, Ferryman (I'm just skim-reading).

Is it this?


From the Wiltshire report:


5.6.20 X (ORAU) reported that the Jersey sample only had 0.6 % N. Ordinarily this is too low to yield extractable collagen of any quality. Despite our concerns, X requested that a fuller chemical treatment be undertaken, in an attempt to produce a result, but although some material was extracted it was demonstrably not collagenous based on the analysis of the texture of the material, the C:N atomic ratios and the similarly significant lack of nitrogen, so the sample was formally failed and the States of Jersey Police notified.

5.6.21 A further analysis of the bone sample later the following week by
X and X (British Museum faunal specialist and one of our collaborators in work undertaken in the ORAU) concluded that the sample was not in fact bone, but was almost certainly wood.


http://www.gov.je/Government/Pages/StatesReports.aspx?ReportID=561
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=1999.20

And preceding that:

the States of Jersey Police for AMS radiocarbon dating. The sample
was formally identified as bone, probably from the skullcap of an
infant, by X , a forensic archaeologist working for the
Jersey police. We received the sample from X (Forensic
Services Manager, States of Jersey Police).
5.6.19     The sample was logged into the ORAU system in the usual manner
and, as in all cases, a sample of bone powder was drilled from the
underside of the specimen using a tungsten carbide drill. The powder
weighed 440 mg. The technician performing this procedure noted that
the material did not behave as bone ordinarily would and did not have
the texture that normal bone exhibits. The technician has a great deal
of experience in the sampling of bone (almost 30 years). Because of
this uncertainty, and as a precaution, a small amount of the sample
was combusted to measure the % nitrogen remaining. % N is a good
correlate for protein, which is dominated in bone by collagen, and the
measurement of nitrogen offers a simple test concerning whether the
sample is dateable or not. Low % N means that the material is
essentially un-dateable using radiocarbon.