27/06/2011 BBC Channel Islands News

Welcome to BBC Channel Islands live in the Isle of Wight for the Island

Games. From the spectacular opening ceremony to the all-important first

medals, we will bring you all the action from the heart of the island

teams. Back here, should Jersey register

sex offenders? One mother says now is the time. And a report -- is a

report which slams the historic Welcome to the programme. Welcome

to stand down in the Isle of Wight where right behind us and our

athletes are limbering up to take on the best of the rest of the 24

islands competing here. Guernsey is leading the medals table with

Jersey not far behind and Sark has already bagged its first gold.

will bring you all the sporting action, the highs and lows and the

spectacular opening ceremony but first I will hand you back to

Edward Sault for the rest of the day's news.

Thank you. Good evening. A woman whose daughter was sexually abused

says Guernsey needs a sex offenders' register. The island's

govern ment is to debate the new sexual offences law later this year

which could bring in greater monitoring of sex offenders.

This woman's 11-year-old daughter was sexually abused by a man living

nearby. He already had a conviction for sexually assaulting the child

and a string of allegations against him which she knew nothing about.

Despite this, he was still allowed to live near children and monitored.

She told me the abuse has devastated their lives. She was

really sad. She was crying. She would sleep in a ball all curled up.

The court case brought it all back again. The criminal who has

committed the crime, in a couple of years, they are out. It is done.

4th them, things carry on. A sex offenders' register would mean the

man was monitored by the police and may not commit the crime. He was

sentenced to four years but with time off for good behaviour and

parole, he could end up serving only a third of his actual sentence.

Guernsey police told me they do effectively monitor known sex

offenders but without a register it is much easier for them to slip

through the net. At the moment, there is no compulsion on people to

let us know what they do and where they are going. So that is where

the problem lies. The mother I spoke to is pleased there are plans

to introduce a sex offenders' register but she says her daughter

is living a life sentence. She says she hopes other parents do not have

to go through the same thing. A 23-year-old labourer has appeared

in Guernsey's magistrates' court after fire at a house in St Peter

Port. Maxwell Charles Roberts did not enter a plea of threatening

criminal damage to this house on the Millbrook estate. He was

remanded in custody for two weeks. A 21 year-old-man has been charged

in connection with a stabbing in St Peter Port. A 20-year-old man was

attacked here at the Grange early on Sunday morning. Police have

charged the alleged attacker with indecent assault and unlawful

wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. A second man

has been bailed pending further inquiries.

Guernsey police say a man found dead in a St Peter Port Street did

not die in suspicious circumstances. The body of a 48 year-old-man was

found early on Sunday morning. A Home Office pathologist was flown

to the island and assisted with the post mortem investigation. Police

say the man's family have been informed and an inquest into his

death will be opened. Jersey police say crime has dropped

to its lowest level for over a decade. Assaults at night in St

Helier dropped by a 5th while theft was down by 6% and criminal damage

fell 12 %. Please feel the drop is down to new ways of working which

have been brought in since the start of this year. I do not think

it is down to a lack of reporting. People in Jersey to report crimes.

Hopefully it is associated with more licensed visits during the

night time, more patrols during the day and consequently, less crime.

Jersey States is reviewing a report which criticises the way the abuse

inquiry was managed. One politician is concerned about its fairness.

Now, a scrutiny panel has been set up to investigate.

Operation rectangle was the police investigation into allegations of

abuse at Haut de la Garenne. It cost half a million pounds,

thousands of pounds over budget. A local accounts company, BDO Alto,

produced a report. But now Trevor Pitman has introduced a scrutiny

panel to look at if the report was fair and accurate. What I would

like to do is to put this to bed. We can see if everything was done

above board, fairly and transparency and both sides of the

story were heard so hopefully we can move on. A man who was heavily

criticised in the report was Lenny Harper, the senior investigating

officer. When I read through the BDO Alto report I was absolutely

shocked at the number of mistaken assumptions and wrongful

assumptions and downright factual inaccuracies which were in the

report. I'm hoping it will clear those up as well. The Minister for

Home Affairs says the BDO Alto report, combined with reports from

Wiltshire Police into the handling of the abuse inquiry was sufficient.

I am surprised they are doing this. It is a matter of public importance

two years after the reports came out. There were two reports. The

first report was Wiltshire report and I view the BDO Alto report as

merely providing more detail. Alto did not want to comment on the

plans to investigate their report. The scrutiny panel will hold a

public hearing in July and will then report to the States.

Still plenty more to come on BBC Channel Islands news this evening.

We are live in the Isle of Wight as I was sportsmen and women go for

gold at the Island Games. -- our sports men and women.

First, growers in the Channel Islands say now is one of their

busiest times of the year. Jersey plants direct export fruit and

flowers from Jersey to the UK and so this year is one of their best.

It comes after an established company was forced to offer --

issue a profits warning. Aad Jersey Plants Direct bucking the trend?

Packing up and sending away, this factory line in a greenhouse is

non-stop at the moment. These boxes are being sent off to the UK full

of plants. Our typical customer is over 55. A lot of them are retired

so we get a lot of our orders in the post. Tim Birmingham is in

charge here and he says now has one of his busiest. At the moment, we

have about 70 people here. We have four acres of glass. We grow a lot

of bedding plants. That is the majority of the products we send

out. We are in the middle of our peak sending season at the moment.

The company claimed people from the UK would rather order plants from

the Channel Islands rather than go to a garden centre because they

claim the quality is better. But at the time that rivals have forced --

reported a plunge in profits, what is this company doing right? Hour

at sales have not been affected by the economy in the UK. Our

customers are buying more plants this year. That may be because we

are taking trade from our competitors because we have got a

different strategy to them. Customer demand is helping this

company to bloom. Others will also be helping -- hoping they can

benefit from its green shoots of successful stock that is it from me

in the studio. I'm back at 8:00pm and 10:25pm. Now

I will hand you back to Claire and Mike in the Isle of Wight. Hello.

Hello. The Island Games are in full swing. We have all the action and

some medals from athletics, cycling, sailing, basketball and too many

sports to mention. Before the competition started it was the

opening ceremony featuring the former Olympic champion, Lord Coe.

There was a long procession through the streets of ride town centre.

Local schoolchildren cheered on the islanders -- Ryde town centre.

Four - at 4,000 athletes, 15,000 And we have found Alderney. Peter,

how are you feeling leading Oldham into the island games? Wonderful.

And we have spied a bit of green. Guernsey is in the house. How are

you feeling? A bit hot now the sun is out. It is great for everybody.

High expectations? Definitely, high And carrying the flag for Jersey,

Neil is a swimming coach. How are you feeling? It is a great

atmosphere. Fair play to the Isle of Wight, they have put on a

tremendous Carnival. It is great to see all the children involved as

And we have got Stefan. How do you think Sark will do? Hopefully

extremely well. We have punched well above our weight in the

previous five games so let's hope And say our teams make their way

into the official opening ceremony where the games will be started by

former Olympic medal-winner and London 2012 chairman Lord Coe.

one thing I know from my previous career as an athlete is the

athletes sitting in front of me are not really wanting to be here for

very much longer and they certainly don't want long speeches. So I am

going to hereby formally declare So, we have got the go-ahead from a

man who is no stranger to winning medals. Now it is down to this lot

to go for gold. And go for gold they did. First

thing on Sunday morning with strong showings from Guernsey and Jersey

in the half marathon. There were very mixed fortunes for

our undoubted stars of the show. Feeling relaxed before her big race,

Jersey runner Katie Thomson has come to the Games for one race and

one race only, the half marathon. And she has not come alone. On the

sidelines, her husband and daughters were cheering Peron.

it was fun, wasn't it? It was kind of fun but you had to run around to

catch up. It probably adds a bit of a boost if you are feeling like you

need a bit of a push so screaming and shouting from the side is

always encouraging. It was going so well for Katie until disaster

struck. An old injury in her foot returned with a vengeance forcing

her to pull out of the marathon. Unfortunately, Katie had to pull

out of the race. She has damaged her for it and she has been taken

off to hospital to find out what is wrong with it but she is very

disappointed. She has been planning and training for this all year so

she has had to pull out and she is devastated. While Katie and her

family made their way to hospital, Guernsey favourite Lee Merrien

scored gold in the half marathon. The first one for the island.

worked hard, it was a tough course. It was a good workout and I am

pleased with the run. Guernsey were also awarded team gold but they

were not the only Channel Islanders standing on the podium. Katie

hobbled her way back to receive team silver. They said where is

your third member and they said she was not able to complete the whole

thing because of her injury and they said we have three medals and

we think she deserves it to come up which was very nice of them! It has

been a day of high is and lows for this athlete but it has ended with

a medal and a smile. Unfortunately, Katie's injury was

not the only one on day one of the Games. The cycling race claimed

eight cyclist before the race even began. Dozens of cyclists in

blistering heat tearing down narrow roads, you could say it was an

accident waiting to happen. Underneath the baking sun and

beneath these sunglasses are cool characters with legs and nerves of

steel. Cycling at this level is tough. It is fast, aggressive and

dangerous. And Jersey's Chris Spence was dealt a cruel blow when

he was involved sodium five bike smash. Chris broke his collarbone

and had to go to accident and emergency with two other riders.

One who escaped serious injury was the Jersey rider Greg Mansell.

hope Chris Spence get better soon. There was a massive crash first lap

and I could not believe it.. After the race restarted, the men battled

it out with Guernsey's Tobin Horton taking gold with a well-timed

breakaway sprint. I used my head as much as possible. I did not plan to

attack but I did and I thought I would go for it. I pulled a bit of

a sneaky move just before a corner and managed to get a gap and held

it. Watching the nail biter was there for me - a former Formula 1

champion Nigel Mansell whose son took silver. The camaraderie, the

competition, it is fantastic. It is intense. I am worn out after that

race. The games have been good so far for Guernsey whose ladies' team

also triumph. The Guernsey ladies also took the team gold. There were

a lot of nerves this morning in our mobile home. I think that has

really settled us for the week. For Sam, it is her first Island Games

in cycling. To settle the nerves and make them realise they are

there and they are competitive. move among the riders is friendly

but be under no illusion, cycling at this Island Games has been a

With over 600 Channel Islanders competing at hear from four

different islands in 14 different sports, but as a whole lot of sport

to cover. I will have the latest on the medals tables and a couple of

minutes but first, here is a quick round-up of some of the other

It was a case of spot the boat on Sunday morning as sailing got off

to a foggy start. Jersey's Martin Speller came eighth. You will have

to take our word for it. All in a day's work when your sport relies

on whether. Nine times that of 10, the weather is good enough to sail.

Every time you go sailing there is something you that you can think

about which makes you win a race or lose a race.

Indoors, there was better news for Guernsey's ladies basketball team.

A convincing victory over hosts the Isle of Wight. They play Bermuda

today for place in the next round. Another convincing victory was in

football, sadly not for one of our islands. Alderney was thrashed 6-1

by Gibraltar. Our first direct into insular clash came this morning in

the table tennis. Jersey were triumphant and progress to the next

stage. It was a great start for Jersey's

men's volleyball team winning their first set against Greenland. But it

did not last long. Their opponents came back fighting and took the

So, a great start for our two biggest teams out here, Jersey and

Guernsey and I am joined now by the bosses of both teams, chairman of

the Island Games Association and team manager. Guernsey are leading

the medals table at the moment so John, we should start with you.

Absolutely fantastic week. It is unbelievable. What more does

Guernsey have to do this week? is a nice place to work away from.

Hopefully, some more medals tonight. Coming to you now, Steve, Jersey

are perhaps going to be a late bloomer, what are we looking out

for? We certainly hope for. Tonight we are in 10 finals in the swimming

so we will hopefully get some medals there. Most of the team

events are coming to an end now. We are starting to get the individuals.

We have had a few accidents on the first day which was unfortunate for

the athletes involved but fair play to Guernsey, they have done really

well. I think it is important that the Channel Islands as a whole win

medals. We are great friends. diplomatic of you! Are the athletes

having a good time? What is the atmosphere like? Lots of happy

campers? There is in our camp, very much so. No problems, very good.

team Jersey in high spirits? Yes, we are in a big camp. We have

Alderney and Gibraltar with us. Everyone has settled in and got

used to wear things are. I think we have one of the better camps, very

close to Shanklin. I have to say how welcome the locals have made us.

There are thousands of people out there, more than we have had before.

There were 40,000 in the opening ceremony. It is great. Of course,

Jersey is hosting the Island Games in 2015 and both Jersey and

Guernsey have hosted it before, what you make of the organisation

and support? The support has been fantastic. The 40,000 at the

opening ceremony, that will never be beaten. On the whole, the games

are very well run. Do you have any tips for 2015 was Mac yes, we have

all the members of the organising committee taking notes. We take

note of what the athletes want as well as the public. We try not to

make the opening ceremony long- winded but the spectacle like the

Isle of Wight put on would be hard to beat. Watch this space for

Jersey 2015. Mike has the latest now on the medal situation.

It has been a great start for the Channel Islands. Guernsey, Jersey

and Sark are all in the top 10 of the medal table. Guernsey won the

gold, silver and bronze in Men's mountain biking. In shooting, Sark

were not to be out done. And it has been a fascinating day and a half.

There is still plenty to see. That is how things are looking sport

wise. Now we can find out what the Hello. The weather is generally

settling down. We have wished -- we have a few more showers to get out

of the way. We have seen some unsettled weather moving. That is

thanks to this cold front. It has also brought in some fresh air. A

cloudy start to the day tomorrow. Then we have this high pressure

that will building from the West. The weather will settle down. It

pleasantly warm and the sunshine, remaining settled for Wednesday

with a chance of a shower. Quite a lot of low cloud and fog patches.

Most of the showers do disappear by the early hours of tomorrow morning.

Fairly mild overnight under the cloud. For tomorrow morning, quite

a grey start. The risk of one or two fog patches around. During the

afternoon, it should dry out but For the Island Games in the Isle of

Wight tomorrow should be generally fine. The outlook is generally

looking settled with the risk of a Only joking, don't worry about the

jackets, we at the BBC are totally impartial. We have not forgotten

about stark and Alderney. I don't know about you but I have seen some

fantastic sporting events. What have been the highlight so far?

highlights were the Guernsey ladies basketball. Fantastic action with a

lot of supporters yesterday. I could not see much of the sailing.

I went out in a boat but it was not the best weather conditions. The

atmosphere here is absolutely incredible. We are staying on the

same campsite as the athletes and they are having a good time as well.

Remember, you can get the latest on the Island Games on the BBC Jersey

and BBC Guernsey websites and tomorrow morning, the Breakfast

show will be coming live from the Isle of Wight between seven and