 In February 2008, a States of Jersey Police investigation into historic child abuse began to be widely reported in the news media around the world.Syvret and others called on the UK Home Secretary Jack Straw to appoint English prosecutors and judges to deal with what Syvret called "the child protection crisis".Syvret himself was criticized for declining assistance from a former head of New Scotland Yard's paedophile unit during his tenure as health minister.