Keith Vaz: Child Abuse Panel Members "Intimidated" over What They Can Say to Commons Committee

By Tom Whitehead
The Telegraph
January 20, 2015

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11357759/Keith-Vaz-Child-abuse-panel-members-intimidated-over-what-they-can-say-to-committee.html

Keith Vaz Photo: AFP/GETTY

The troubled inquiry in to child sexual abuse was thrown in to fresh controversy last night after an expert on it claimed she was being “bullied and intimidated”.

Sharon Evans, a child abuse survivor, accused the inquiry’s lawyer of “overstepping the mark” including claims he had put pressure on how she should give evidence to a parliamentary committee.

It is the latest blow for the inquiry set up by Home Secretary Theresa May, to find out whether public bodies had neglected or covered up allegations of child sex abuse in the wake of claims paedophiles had operated in Westminster in the 1980s.

It has already been hit by the resignations of both Baroness Butler-Sloss and then Dame Fiona Woolf as the chairman after each became entangled in allegations of conflict of interest.

Mrs Evans, chief executive of the Dotcom Children's Foundation, which helps prevent children from becoming victims of violence or abuse, told the Home Affairs Select Committee she felt "bullied and intimidated" by counsel to the inquiry Ben Emmerson QC.

Chair of the committee Keith Vaz asked Ms Evans about reported concerns she had over alleged directions made by Mr Emmerson in respect of evidence she would give to the Committee.

She claimed he had told her she must give evidence along with other panel members as one collective voice.

She said: "I do feel concerned, very concerned.

"I feel that would prevent me from answering some of your questions honestly."

Ms Evans said she was concerned about the "independence" of the inquiry in relation to advice she had received from one adviser, adding that letters she had sent to the Home Secretary had been rewritten by Mr Emmerson.

"I felt very bullied," she told the Committee. "He was overstepping the mark with advice and rewriting of letters."

The Home Secretary revealed in a letter last month that she was considering standing down the current panel in favour of a royal commission or a new inquiry on statutory terms.

In a statement after the hearing Mr Emmerson QC claimed Mrs Evans had repeatedly disclosed confidential information from panel meetings and it was his duty to raise that with her.

He said the allegations of bullying and intimidation were “entirely baseless” and that his advice “was legally correct and entirely necessary in the circumstances”.

In a separate statement, the rest of the panel said it had “full confidence in the integrity, advice and impartiality of Counsel to the Inquiry”.