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3.7 The Deputy of St. Martin of the Minister for Home Affairs regarding positive identification of the fragment found at Haut de la Garenne in 2008 as a piece of coconut shell:
I must say, I find this is rather in bad taste before I start my question. Would the Minister advise whether the fragment found at Haut de la Garenne in 2008 has been positively identified at Kew Gardens; whether it is a piece of coconut shell, and if it is not, will he inform Members what it is and confirm that it is still in police possession?
Senator B.I. Le Marquand (The Minister for Home Affairs):
The fragment referred to has been positively identified by 2 experts at Kew Gardens as being from a coconut endocarp. This diagram is not in the least in bad taste. This
is a diagram to show Members what an endocarp is and it does that in 2 ways. Firstly,
the top diagram shows that the outside skin of a coconut has 3 different levels. This is the inner level of the 3 and the bottom picture demonstrates - the bottom half of it - what an endocarp looks like, so this is purely information for Members. If I said "endocarp", people would have said: "What is an endocarp?" and I would not have been able to explain. There it is; both diagrammatically at the top and a picture of what a coconut endocarp looks like at the bottom. My information is that that identification was on 12th May 2009.
- The Deputy of St. Martin :
I did ask whether it was still in possession. Can the Minister inform Members whether the alleged fragment, or whatever it is, is still in police possession?
Senator B.I. Le Marquand:
It is indeed still in police possession, yes.
- The Deputy of St. Martin :
Obviously the Minister might not want to make the names of the people - the anthropologists at Kew Gardens - available to Members on the floor but could I ask the Minister whether he could make those names available to me at some other time? I think it is very important that we know when this fragment was identified as a piece of coconut.
[10:30]
Senator B.I. Le Marquand:
It is not customary to provide the names of experts in relation to such matters and I do not propose to depart from the normal practice.