All eyes are on the News of the World's high court fight over Max Mosley. (My hunch: Mr Justice Eady will rule that the paper did intrude on Mosley's privacy). While we await the judge's decision on that case, however, let's consider the veracity of the NoW's latest splash, HELLFIRE: Jersey home dossier to reveal children were murdered... then burnt.
The story told of "a top-secret police report" that supposedly reveals how the bodies of murdered children were burned in a furnace to cover up the atrocities. It then claimed that "island authorities may try to hush up the dossier on Haut de la Garenne orphanage."
There was a lot of bloodthirsty detail after that across two inside pages... remains were scattered on the floor of cellar punishment rooms... strands from brushes were found where bones were swept up... abuse at the home continued until the 1980s.
Despite the lack of any named sources, it seemed convincing enough to me, a noted sceptic about all News of the World "investigations".
But a short on-the-record police announcement in yesterday's Jersey Evening Post casts doubt on the lurid NoW claims, Secret murder dossier? News to us, say police. Jersey's deputy police chief Lenny Harper is quoted as saying that that there was no such secret report.
It's blindingly obvious that they cannot both be right. So who are we to believe? A paper with a track record like the News of the World's or an official police spokesman? Tough call, eh?
