Establishment Child Abuse Inquiry Will Investigate Claims from before 1970s As Panel Is Named

By Tom Mctague and Matt Chorley
Daily Mail
March 12, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2991860/Establishment-child-abuse-inquiry-investigate-claims-1970s-panel-named.html

Home Secretary Theresa May said she had agreed to remove any cut-off date for claims which can be investigated by the probe

A new judge-led inquiry into historic child abuse will investigate allegations from before the 1970s, Theresa May announced today.

The Home Secretary announced a new four person panel would serve alongside Justice Lowell Goddard, a New Zealand judge, to investigate allegations that celebrities and other VIPs were involved in child abuse which was covered up by the establishment.

Mrs May said she had agreed to remove any cut-off date for claims which can be investigated by the probe.

In a written statement to MPs, Mrs May said the inquiry would have 'access to all relevant information'.

Mrs May scrapped the original panel after two chairs were forced to stand down over their links to establishment figures including the former Home Secretary Leon Brittan.

The Home Secretary announced the new panel would be made up of Professor Alexis Jay, who led the inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, Drusilla Sharpling, Ivor Frank and Malcolm Evans.

Mrs May said Mr Frank had extensive experience in family and human rights law, and expertise in child protection matters.

Mr Evans is chairman of the United Nations subcommittee for the prevention of torture and professor of public international law at the University of Bristol.

And Ms Sharpling is a qualified barrister with expertise in both policing and the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Home Secretary said: 'In addition, the panel will be informed by a number of expert advisers in the fields of health, education, and a psychologist with expertise in this sensitive area.

'All panel members will be formally appointed subject to their conflict of interest declarations and the appropriate security checks.'

After finalising new terms of reference for the inquiry, Mrs May added: 'The two most important changes are the removal of any cut-off date for the work of the inquiry and, reflecting the importance of survivors to the inquiry, the explicit statement that survivors will be able to bear witness to the inquiry and that support will be made available.'

And she told the Commons: 'I am confident that the new statutory Inquiry, under the chairmanship of Justice Goddard, will challenge individuals and institutions without fear or favour and get to the truth.

'This will not be an easy task but I believe the inquiry now has the right leadership, individuals and powers to make this happen. I wish Justice Goddard and the panel every success as they now move forward with this important work.'

Mrs May first set up the inquiry last July 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.

Last month she appointed Judge Goddard as the inquiry's new chair and confirmed that it would be put on a statutory footing after a series of false starts over its chairs and its non-statutory status.

Alison Millar, from law firm Leigh Day, which is representing dozens of abuse victims, told MailOnline: 'Most of the clients we represent would really welcome the fact that it is now not time limited to 1970, so will be able to investigate abuse in institutions and schools from much earlier.

'The people who approach us, the people we act for, it's a variety of situations: It's schools, hospitals, care settings, children's homes, foster care placements.

'I am representing some people who allege that high profile people abuse them. We have a large number of clients who say they were abused by Jimmy Savile. But the majority of people have not been abused by some body high profile or famous. It is a residential care worker or teacher.'

New Zealand High Court judge Lowell Goddard is leading the new inquiry, set up last month after the original probe was scrapped

Amnesty International's Northern Ireland programme director Patrick Corrigan said it was a 'missed opportunity' to investigate alleged abuse at Kincora Boys' Home in east Belfast.

'By excluding Kincora from the only inquiry which has the power to establish the truth about the role the intelligence services may have played in the paedophile ring, the Home Secretary risks looking like she is now playing her part in a decades-long cover-up.

'The Home Secretary says that child protection is a devolved matter. She is neatly ignoring the fact that the Northern Ireland Assembly unanimously supports the inclusion of Kincora in the Westminster inquiry, because it knows that the local inquiry has no powers to compel evidence from MI5 and the Ministry of Defence and that it does not have the confidence of victims or potentially crucial witnesses.

'Kincora should be investigated alongside claims of establishment involvement in child abuse rings in other parts of the UK. With new allegations emerging of links between Kincora and paedophile rings elsewhere in the UK, the case for inclusion has never been stronger.

'Kincora's child abuse victims were badly let down in the 70s. Sadly, they are being failed again now by this government.'

Labour crime spokeswoman Diana Johnson said: 'It is welcome that the child abuse inquiry is finally on a statutory footing, with a chair and panel who have been properly vetted and appointed due to clear criteria.

It is also welcome that the statutory inquiry will now be able to investigate abuse that happened prior to 1979.

'Most of all, it is welcome that survivors, though not represented on the panel, are finally given formal recognition in the remit of the inquiry and there is a pledge to offer survivors support.

'But it is very disappointing that it has taken this long to get to this point. This is what Theresa May should have done from the start. Failing to properly vet the first two chairs of the panel, failing to explain how other members of the panel were appointed and most of all failing to include a proper mechanism for listening to and supporting victims were all avoidable mistakes made by the Home Secretary.

'If she had not made these mistakes we could have been in this position last July, or even three years ago when Labour first called for an over-arching inquiry.'

Survivors Alliance spokeswoman Lucy Duckworth said: 'The new terms of reference and structure give the inquiry wider powers to compel witnesses to give evidence and will uncover the atrocities and cover-ups prevalent in our institutions for decades.

'Expanding the terms of reference means institutions responsible for trafficking and abusing children outside England and Wales will also now be investigated.

'We particularly welcome the increased opportunities for survivor input and expanded expertise of experience into the inquiry. This is essential for the panel to fulfil its remit.

'We are proud to have worked with our colleagues to lobby for these essential changes and look forward to continuing to work alongside all involved in the inquiry.'

HOW THE INQUIRY HAS FACED A CATALOGUE OF PROBLEMS

The Government's inquiry into historical child abuse has been plagued with controversy since it was established last year. Here are the key events:

2014

Monday July 7: Home Secretary Theresa May announces she will establish an independent inquiry under an expert panel to examine the handling of allegations of paedophilia by state institutions as well as bodies such as the BBC, churches and political parties. It will be chaired by 'an appropriately senior and experienced figure', she tells the House of Commons.

Tuesday July 8: Baroness Butler-Sloss is named as the chairwoman but questions are raised about the choice as her brother, Sir Michael Havers, was in the Cabinet in the 1980s as attorney general.

Saturday July 12: Claims emerge that Baroness Butler-Sloss once refused to go public about a bishop implicated in a scandal. She is reported to have told a victim of alleged abuse she did not want to include their claims in a review of how the Church of England dealt with two paedophile priests because she 'cared about the Church' and 'the press would love a bishop'.

Monday July 14: Downing Street announces that Baroness Butler-Sloss has decided to quit.

Friday September 5: The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Fiona Woolf, a former president of the Law Society of England and Wales, is named as the new chairman.

Sunday September 7: The Mail on Sunday reveals links between Mrs Woolf and Lord Brittan, who was likely to be called to give evidence to the inquiry over a dossier he received from Mr Dickens in 1983, documenting the alleged involvement of VIP figures in a child sex ring. Labour MP Simon Danczuk, who has led the campaign for an inquiry, says Mrs Woolf's position would be 'untenable' if she was close to the Brittans.

Monday September 8: Downing Street says Prime Minister David Cameron continues to have 'strong support' for the appointment.

Tuesday October 21: Mrs May insists she has confidence in the inquiry chairwoman after Mrs Woolf gives details of her links to Lord Brittan. Mrs Woolf insists there is nothing in the encounters that would stop her chairing the wide-ranging probe.

Giving evidence later to the Home Affairs Select Committee, Mrs Woolf insists she has 'gone the extra distance' to declare every possible issue to reassure victims and does not have a 'close association' with the former Cabinet minister.

Wednesday October 22: As pressure mounts on Mrs Woolf to stand down, a photograph surfaces showing her chatting to Lady Brittan at a prize-giving in October 2013 - she had previously stated that she had had 'no social contact with Lord and Lady Brittan since April 23 2013'.

Friday October 31: Mrs Woolf quits down as head of the inquiry, after victims' representatives issued a unanimous call for her to be replaced.

Monday November 3: Mrs May apologies to survivors during a Commons statement and says she will meet survivors before appointing a new chair.

Tuesday November 11: A key review into the Home Office's handling of allegations finds there is no evidence of organised attempts to conceal child abuse. It came after it emerged the department 'lost or destroyed' 114 files between 1979 and 1999.

Thursday December 4: A number of alleged victims write to Mrs May saying they will withdraw from the inquiry unless the Government makes major changes to it.

Sunday December 21: Survivors say they welcome an indication from the Home Secretary that the inquiry will be given statutory powers, including the ability to compel witnesses to give evidence.

2015

Wednesday January 21: Leon Brittan dies as the age of 75.

Wednesday February 4: Mrs May announces she is scrapping the inquiry, and setting up a new one with new chair Justice Lowell Goddard