Sir Peter’s scathing comments about the honorary system are contained in his explosive memoirs A Little Brief Authority, which are being published weeks after his death.
Sir Peter was the Island’s Attorney General from 1969 to 1975 and as such was the titular head of the honorary police, but it is clear that he had little regard for many of its members.
At that time the honoraries saw themselves as the senior police force in the Island, above their States colleagues, but Sir Peter did not see it that way.
‘I do not subscribe to the view that it is the paramount force in the Island,’ he writes.
He even claims that the Island’s judicial system would have collapsed had it not been for the Crown Officers ‘covering up’ the incompetence of certain members of the honorary police.
Sir Peter is deeply critical of both the States and honorary forces’ handling of the Beast of Jersey investigation and claims that Edward Paisnel – who was eventually jailed for 30 years for the sex attacks – was allowed to slip through the net at a time when compulsory fingerprinting was being carried out on all the Island’s men.
