Alphonse Le Gastelois: Ex Gratia payment

ALPHONSE LE GASTELOIS: EX GRATIA PAYMENT

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Lodged au Greffe on 10th August 1999 by Senator J.S. Rothwell

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STATES OF JERSEY

STATES GREFFE

175             1 9 9 9   P . 1 1 1          

Price code: A

PROPOSITION

THE STATES are asked to decide whether they are of opinion -

(a)  to approve the making of an ex gratia payment of £20,000 to Alphonse Le Gastelois as compensation for the suffering and humiliation he endured from being wrongfully accused of committing sex crimes in Jersey;

  (b ) to authorise the Treasurer of the States to make the necessary payment from general revenues. SENATOR JOHN STEPHEN ROTHWELL

NOTE - Comments of the Finance and Economics Committee to follow.

Report

Alphonse Le Gastelois, much to his distaste, will always be remembered for being the chief suspect in a series of hideous sex crimes that plagued the Island in the late fifties and throughout the sixties. He was hounded, humiliated, spat on and cursed until not being able to withstand the onslaught of public vilification any longer left his tiny rented cottage at Faldouet for the Ecréhous where he remained in exile for 14 years.

Alphonse was always looked on as an odd ball, in appearance and lifestyle. He lived alone, kept himself to himself and was seen regularly roaming the countryside and lanes, often late in the evening. He was often teased by the young of the Parish of St. Martin . He was used to that but when rumour turned to gossip and later suspicion, those youngsters and adults became afraid. Ridicule turned to hate. Suspicion reached fever pitch when the States Police picked him up and questioned him at Police Headquarters for over 14 hours. Whilst there, his cottage was searched and various items and all his clothes were removed and sent to Scotland yard for examination.

Alphonse emerged from Police Headquarters a forlorn figure, wrapped in a blanket. He was driven home only to discover on arrival that all the windows of his cottage were broken.

Alphonse could stand it no more. He was deeply depressed and could see no way out. He yearned for peace and freedom from the victimisation he had endured. He arranged for a local fisherman to take him to the Ecréhous where he remained until 1975. In that year he was brought back to Jersey and charged with setting fire to a cottage on the Ecréhous.

He was acquitted at the Assize Court but had already spent three months in La Moye Prison awaiting trial.

Now feeling he was unwanted on the reef, he decided to remain in Jersey. At least he was assured there would be no further humiliation, as the man who actually committed the sex crimes, Edward John Louis Paisnel was serving a 30 year jail sentence.

Alphonse is now 84 years of age, living alone in abject poverty in a single room at the rear end of a cottage in St. Helier . Most of the time he keeps himself locked in. He suffers severe back pain which impairs his ability to walk very far. He is a lost soul, a victim of circumstance which changed the direction of his life forever. He was an innocent man wrongly accused, persecuted by his fellow islanders, and subjected to constant intense police surveillance. He has received no pension and has never been given a single penny in compensation.

I believe we should recognise that he is deserving of some compensation for the suffering he has endured from being wrongly accused.

It might help to restore some faith in a society that vilified him, and never said sorry.