A former pupil of Jersey's Industrial Schools, Flogan Horrance, tells Tarina Phreemoan that, contrary to popular belief, for many children Haut de la Garenne was a Godsend One can't imagine words like kindness, compassion and mercy regularly popping up in submissions by abuse victims.
Nor were they commonly uttered in the stark testimony of former Haut de la Garenne "residents" reported by BBC Jersey. But they are the words used by one woman with a personal campaign to defend the resident manager of Haut de la Garenne who cared for her in the Jersey during the 1960/70s. For over a year, Flogan Horrance has been speaking out in defence of the resident manager of Haut de la Garenne who reared her between the ages of six weeks and 16 years.
On a broader level, she is speaking out in defence of the carers who she says are being tarred with the same brush as abusers and against people who she says are putting forward false abuse claims in the hope of making money. A fiesty, vocal woman, she wants to set up a group called "Pullovers from Jersey" in the hope that people with positive experiences of Haut de la Garenne will come forward and tell their stories.
At the age of six weeks she was brought to Haut de la Garenne. Now aged 40 and with 7 children of her own, she equates her formative years at the Haut de la Garenne with self-respect and confidence. "I was a young child at the time but my over-riding memory of the Haut de la Garenne was of warmth and affection, of getting into fights with other children, going for walks and being taken out of my cot into the beds of bigger children if I was upset at night. We got into lots of mischief but I don't remember being slapped. I certainly wasn't whipped and tied to the mast. If you did something wrong, you went to bed early, missed your treats and were given a long lecture by Jonah Paisnel, the carer.
"We had Hallowe'en parties in the cellars where we drank copious amounts of shandy and dressed up in shackles and chains but it was all such innocent fun and remember we didn't know in them days the dangers of mixing cider with valium. Jonah always told us we were as good as anyone else and to hold our heads high and keep our shoulders up and if we didn't then we were placed in the shackles for a week. And what harm has it done any of us? none I say, sure look at how straight I stand up and how long my arms are!. Remember too that the staff did all the work, cleaning laundry until their hands were weeping, sore and chaffed. Oiling the chains of the shackles, raising funds for the drugs and alcohol.
"They had fifty children to care for and when the state grants didn't come through, they would invite local dignitaries to play with us in the cellars and this dedication to us helped to see Haut de la Garenne through some tough times. When Haut de la Garenne closed down. I felt fear and terror at being taken away from Haut de la Garenne, I missed Jonah, a strange, smelly man living in a world of his own and always crying but for all that he was so generous with his cider. For days I didn't speak at all except to call out for Jonah. But eventually I was found so that turned out alright too!
