Judge Leading Child Abuse Probe Will Earn ?360,000 a Year Plus ?130,000 Expenses and 10 Return Flights to New Zealand

By Jenny Awford
Daily Mail
July 13, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3159565/Judge-leading-child-abuse-probe-earn-360-000-year.html

Justice Lowell Goddard, the senior New Zealand judge appointed to head the historic child abuse inquiry, is to receive a pay package worth ?500,000

The senior New Zealand judge flown in to lead the historic child sex abuse inquiry is to receive a pay package worth ?500,000 a year plus 10 return flights to her native country, it has been revealed.

To the fury of victims, Justice Lowell Goddard, who officially opened the inquiry last week, will be paid a salary of ?360,000 a year with a rental allowance of ?110,000 a year and a ?12,000 utility allowance on top.

The Home Office will also fund four business class return flights for the High Court judge and her husband to return to New Zealand plus a further two return flights for family members.

Justice Goddard is expected to receive around ?2.5million in pay and allowances over the course of the inquiry, which she said last week is due to run until late 2020.

This means she would be the highest paid public servant in Britain in terms of her basic salary which is also two and a half times that of Prime Minister David Cameron.

Justice Goddard's package includes ?1,000 a month to pay for utilities, plus a car and driver for official business.

She will be entitled to 30 days' holiday a year, but will not receive pension entitlements in the job.

The senior judge is contracted to December 2018 with extensions allowed by mutual agreement with the Home Office, but she is allowed to resign with three months' notice.

Four panel members of the inquiry will be paid ?565 a day – meaning they could earn ?146,900 a year if they work five days a week.

The probe, set to last five years and cost up to ?100million, will even scrutinise the Royal Household if it is accused of involvement.

Set up following the Jimmy Savile revelations and amid explosive allegations of an Establishment cover-up of a child sex gang centred on Parliament in the Eighties, the inquiry will look at whether public bodies failed to protect youngsters.

Justice Goddard said that child abuse 'cannot be calculated in monetary terms', adding: 'It is the inherent right of every child to experience a childhood free of sexual abuse and intimidation.'

But revelations of the sums she will rake in were met with anger last night.

Andi Lavery, 43, who says he was molested at Catholic boarding school in the mid-1980s, said: ‘This is a kick in the teeth. Me and thousands of other abuse survivors have never received a penny in compensation despite our lives being torn apart when we were young. It is disgusting that so much money is being spent paying the judge.

The probe, set to last five years and cost up to ?100million, was set up following the Jimmy Savile revelations

Before his death, Lord Brittan (pictured) has been seen as a key witness to give evidence to the inquiry

‘It is nice work if you can get it. I am having to fight the Home Office to pay my a few hundred pounds to cover my expenses when I travelled to London for meetings before the inquiry was set up.’

Labour MP John Mann said: ‘It is ridiculous amount of money and disproportionate to the role. It is a different world. The judges are so cossetted. She will have to prove her worth very, very quickly.’

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons’ home affairs select committee, welcomed Justice Goddard’s ‘openness and transparency’ in publishing her pay deal but noted the panel first asked for the information in February.

Her salary is substantially more than the highest-paid judge in England and Wales, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the Lord Chief Justice, who receives ?244,665.

Sir John Chilcot, who headed the report into the Iraq war, was paid a daily rate of ?790 – ?205,400 a year – while Sir Brian Leveson, who chaired the inquiry into Press standards and ethics, received his ?197,000 judge’s salary.

Baroness Butler-Sloss (left) quit as chairman after questions were raised about her brother sitting in the Cabinet in the 1980s. Her replacement Fiona Woolf (right) later resigned

Baroness Butler-Sloss (left) quit as chairman after questions were raised about her brother sitting in the Cabinet in the 1980s. Her replacement Fiona Woolf (right) later resigned

Four panel members of the inquiry will be paid ?565 a day – meaning they could earn ?146,900 a year if they work five days a week.

Ministers have approved a budget for the inquiry of ?17.9million for 2015-16. Staffing costs, including barristers and researchers, are expected to account for 41 per cent of the budget which the judge said was ‘carefully costed’.

She said child abuse ‘cannot be calculated in monetary terms’, adding: ‘It is the inherent right of every child to experience a childhood free of sexual abuse and intimidation.’

She is the third person picked to lead the inquiry, announced by the Home Secretary last July, after her predecessors stood down over perceived conflicts of interest.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Justice Goddard has a high level of relevant experience and expertise and as she said herself last week – this is the most ambitious public inquiry ever established in England and Wales.’

Justice Goddard said victims had been ignored for too long and vowed to examine the role of all institutions

She was appointed to lead the Government's independent inquiry following the resignation of two previous chairwomen.

Baroness Butler-Sloss stood down as chair 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 earlier this year.

This is a kick in the teeth. Me and thousands of other abuse survivors have never received a penny in compensation

Andi Lavery

Home Secretary Theresa May officially reconstituted the probe under Justice Goddard in March and placed it on a statutory footing, meaning it has the power to compel witnesses to give evidence.

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.

The inquiry will consider 'the extent to which State and non-State institutions have failed in their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation'. It will cover England and Wales.

Also on Justice Goddard's panel are Professor Malcolm Evans, of Bristol University, child protection barrister Ivor Frank, Professor Alexis Jay, who led the inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, and Drusilla Sharpling, of the police inspectorate.

Justice Goddard said it will be Britain's largest ever public inquiry and issued a stark warning to individuals and institutions that they will face scrutiny 'no matter how apparently powerful'.

She said it would use sweeping powers to publicly identify those who had avoided justice for vile crimes.

Justice Goddard pledged that it would not hesitate to uncover the scale of abuse that had left ‘permanent scars’ on victims and society.

The judge added that the public inquiry would not get ‘bogged down’ by the delays ‘bedevilling’ probes such as the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War which is still going on after six years.

She said: ‘We must travel from the corridors of power in Westminster to children’s homes in the poorest parts of the country, to hospitals, GP surgeries, schools, churches and charities.’