Fury as Home Office officials claim Establishment sex abuse inquiry could last for EIGHT years

By Matt Chorley
Daily Mail
May 17, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3085052/Fury-Home-Office-officials-claim-Establishment-sex-abuse-inquiry-EIGHT-years.html

The inquiry, to be chaired by New Zealand judge Lowell Goddard (pictured) will investigate whether public bodies, including governments, charities, the Church and BBC, failed to protect children

Labour MP Simon Danczuk said Home Secretary Theresa May had suggested to him that the inquiry could last two to three years

The inquiry into Establishment child abuse could last up to eight years, twice as long as first thought, it was claimed today.

The controversial probe into allegations of decades of abuse and cover-up has been dogged by delays, with two chairmen force to resign, and might not even start for another six months.

But abuse survivors condemned the suggestion it might not finish until 2023, warning: 'Justice delayed is justice denied.'

The inquiry, which has been a shambles since it was announced last July, will investigate whether public bodies, including governments, charities, the Church and BBC, failed to protect children.

Home Secretary Theresa May was forced to scour the globe to find a chairman for the inquiry, after fears leading figures in the UK would be seen as too close to the Establishment.

Lowell Goddard, a High Court judge in New Zealand, was appointed in February when she said leading the inquiry was the 'biggest challenge' she has ever faced.

She told the Home Affairs Select Committee she was reluctant to set a timescale for the inquiry as this stage.

But she said it had been indicated when she took the job that it could take 'three years, possibly into a fourth'.

It followed the resignations of two earlier chairmen Baroness Butler-Sloss and Dame Fiona Woolf, who stood aside amid concerns over their family and social links.

Now it has emerged it could take twice as long as thought to conclude. According to The Sunday Times, a senior Home Office official was recorded at a meeting with abuse survivors saying the inquiry could 'go on for eight years'.

Andrew Lavery, a sex abuse victim who recorded the comments, told the newspaper: 'This inquiry cannot be allowed to take another eight years. Justice delayed is justice denied.

'This inquiry offers nothing on care or redress for those taking part, no guarantee over the Official Secrets Act and no prospect of abusers nor their institutions being held to account. So I ask, 'What is the point?''

Labour MP Simon Danczuk said Mrs May had suggested to him that the inquiry could last two to three years. 'This feels like more than just classic Whitehall obfuscation. It feels like deliberate delay.'

The inquiry has been dogged with problems since it was first announced by Mrs May last summer.

The panel of experts was created to examine evidence that successive governments, charities, political parties, the NHS, the BBC and the Church failed to protect children from paedophiles.

But it has failed to make any significant progress after losing not one but two chairman.

The first person appointed to lead the inquiry was Baroness Butler-Sloss, who stood down in July last year amid questions over the role played by her late brother, Lord Havers, who was attorney general in the 1980s.

Her replacement Dame Fiona Woolf then resigned following a barrage of criticism over her 'Establishment links', most notably in relation to former home secretary Leon Brittan, who died last month.

Before his death, Lord Brittan had been seen as a key witness to give evidence to the inquiry over a dossier he received from MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983, documenting the alleged involvement of VIP figures in a child sex ring.

An inquiry spokesman said: 'The scope of the inquiry is huge, covering many public and private institutions and, given we do not know how many people will wish to engage, it is not possible to say how long it may last.

'Before we can get up to full speed ... there is a considerable amount of work to do on developing essential infrastructure.'