 Members voted in favour of Syvret's dismissal by 35 to 15.From September 2007 to April 2010, Syvret was a backbencher in the States assembly.On 5 December 2007, as "Father of the House", Syvret was called on to make what is usually a short and uncontroversial speech to mark the last sitting of the assembly before Christmas; instead Syvret made an emotional plea to Chief Minister Frank Walker and other politicians for being, Syvret claimed, complicit in covering up "decades of child abuse".