Child sex abuse inquiry could last for a DECADE: It's already racked up costs of £18m - now it's feared probe could become another Chilcot, by Rebecca Camber, Daily Mail (July 27, 2016)

Child sex abuse inquiry could last for a DECADE: It's already racked up costs of £18m - now it's feared probe could become another Chilcot

The official inquiry into child sex abuse could run for a decade – and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds, it emerged last night.

The probe is receiving up to 100 fresh allegations every week – a quarter of them referred to the police.

The largest inquiry in British legal history had already been earmarked to last around five years.

But a lawyer for some of the alleged victims yesterday said it could now take ‘at least ten years’.

It sparked fury from campaigners and raised fears the probe could become ‘another Chilcot’, the Iraq war inquiry that took six years to complete – longer than British troops were in the country.

The independent child abuse inquiry has already spent almost £18million of public money and has yet to publicly question a single witness or victim.

Lawyers can receive up to £200 an hour from public funds – while its chairman, New Zealand judge Dame Lowell Goddard, is being paid £360,000 a year.

At a hearing yesterday, she announced that a key investigation – into claims of abuse by the Labour peer Lord Janner – would be postponed by at least six months. It is one of 13 cases launched by the inquiry team examining alleged institutional cover-up, with other areas under scrutiny including the Catholic and Anglican churches and abuse in children’s homes in London.

Ben Emmerson QC, counsel to the inquiry, described how swamped his team was. He said they were ‘receiving 80 to 100 allegations a week’ and that ‘20 to 25’ of these were being referred to the police.

That means forces potentially face a deluge of 1,000 new investigations a year generated by the inquiry. There are already concerns that officers are having to devote too many resources to historical sex abuse claims. Peter Garsden, a partner with the law firm Simpson Millar – which is representing 16 alleged victims of Janner among others – said the inquiry risked being overwhelmed.

He said: ‘This could take at least ten years. There is so much material to go through.’ The barrister said his clients welcomed the scope of the inquiry but were concerned it would drag on too long, ‘reawakening memories of abuse’.

The inquiry – set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal to examine the way public bodies handled child sex abuse claims – has spent £17.9million on staff, instructing a battery of lawyers and setting up a string of regional offices, but is yet to hear a single word of evidence.

Barristers can receive up to £200 an hour representing alleged victims, while solicitors can get £150 – paid for out of inquiry funds.

Dame Justice Goddard, who made her opening statement more than a year ago, receives £360,000 a year salary and a further £110,000 a year in ‘rental allowance’. If proceedings take five years, the 68-year-old will receive more than £2.4million of public money.

And despite her career credentials, an unofficial recent survey of New Zealand’s 63 judges ranked Dame Goddard at 63rd.

The inquiry has already hired 155 staff, including lawyers and civil servants, and even opened satellite offices in Liverpool, Darlington and Cardiff as well as running a London HQ. So far, more than 2,000 people have contacted the inquiry to say they have suffered abuse, and 600 have consented to take part.

Perhaps the most ambitious part of the inquiry involves the so-called ‘truth project’. It will be similar to the Australian Royal Commission into child abuse, in which historic abuse victims were encouraged to testify in private hearings. Again, it raises fears about the length of time it could take to complete.

Marilyn Hawes, of support group Enough Abuse, said last night: ‘If there are 100 allegations a week, this is going to take 10 years at the earliest, more likely 12.

‘They have spent millions already and no one has been questioned. It’s ridiculous. I question what are we going to achieve at the end of it? This has the potential to be the biggest gravy train for lawyers.

‘There has to be a forum for these allegations to be heard, a lot of people have suffered brutally and they need help, but will this really bring them justice?’

Dame Goddard yesterday adjourned public hearings on Lord Janner until March next year ‘at the earliest’ because of a police watchdog probe in the case and a separate ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of abuse.

Mr Emmerson said although the Janner investigation had made ‘considerable progress’, it still had ‘more work to do’, including approaching the intelligence services to see what they knew about the Labour peer. Lawyers will now contact MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to request any files they held on the former MP for Leicester West, who died last year aged 87.

It comes days after the Independent Police Complaints Commission informed 11 officers and staff from Leicestershire police that they were under investigation over their handling of the case.

In January, a report by High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques found that failures by police and prosecutors meant three chances were missed to charge Lord Janner in 1991, 2002 and 2007.

The MP was the subject of controversy last year when Alison Saunders, director of public prosecutions, ruled that it would not be in the public interest to charge him as he had dementia.

After a public outcry, the decision was overturned and he was charged with sexual offences dating back to the 1960s. But he died in December before a so-called ‘trial of the facts’ could take place.

The criminal case was dropped but claims against him are now being examined as part of the inquiry which has given 33 of his alleged victims the right to make statements, see documents and seek permission to ask questions.

Yesterday Lord Janner’s lawyers said in a statement: ‘Lord Janner was an honourable man, entirely innocent and never convicted of any crime.’ A spokesman for the Goddard inquiry said: ‘The chairman has publicly said she aims to finish the inquiry in five years.

‘That’s still her intention.’