May Unveils Abuse Probe Panellists

Daily Mail
March 12, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-2991602/May-unveils-abuse-probe-panellists.html

Professor Alexis Jay will sit on the panel

In a written statement to MPs, Mrs May said: "Survivors have been instrumental in the setting up of this statutory inquiry. Both Justice Goddard and I are clear that they must also have a strong voice in the work of the inquiry as it now moves forward.

"Justice Goddard will be writing to survivors and their representatives shortly to set out her intention to create a survivors and victims' consultative panel and to seek their views on how this will work and who should be on it.

"This panel will have a specific role and function within the i nquiry."

Mrs May reiterated the full support of the Government for the work of the inquiry and "access to all relevant information".

Mrs May dissolved the original panel after two chairs were forced to stand down over their links to Establishment figures from the 1970s and 80s, appointing a new chair and re-examining the terms of reference.

Prof Jay led work on the Independent Inquiry into c hild sexual exploitation in Rotherham. She had been named as an advisor to the previous incarnation of the inquiry.

In the statement, 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.

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 i nquiry 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, said: "We welcome today's announcement from the Home Secretary that survivors will be able to contribute to the reformed statutory inquiry into child abuse.

"This will give victims the opportunity to share their direct experiences, which should include how any complaints voiced were received and processed so that lessons can be fully learned where the institutional response has been lacking. Moreover, that support will be made available to survivors, which is most important.

"We also welcome news that there is intent to create a survivors' consultative panel to sit alongside the newly appointed panel, though it has been noted by my clients that there are no people who have disclosed childhood abuse appointed to sit alongside Justice Lowell Goddard.

"My clients will be monitoring closely how this will work and what voice survivors will have in the questioning of witnesses by the inquiry and its ultimate recommendations."

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."