Lowell Goddard refuses to give evidence to MPs on child sex abuse inquiry

By Sean O’neill
Times
November 09, 2016

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/_TP_/edition/news/goddard-attacked-for-refusing-to-appear-before-mps-r99f7kv07?ni-statuscode=acsaz-307

Dame Lowell Goddard has refused to give evidence before the home affairs select committee

The former head of the public inquiry into child abuse has refused to appear before a Commons select committee in a move described as “astonishing” bythe chairwoman of the committee.

Dame Lowell Goddard, who resigned from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in August and has been accused of serious misconduct during her 18 months in charge, told the home affairs committee she would not give oral evidence in person or via videolink.

The New Zealand judge said she had been subjected to “malicious defamatory attacks” in the British media and did not want to appear before a hearing where some of those “false allegations” could be repeated under parliamentary privilege.

Dame Lowell said she was “disappointed that there has been no government defence of me in England”. She said she had provided detailed written evidence to the committee and she was “not aware of any matter which remains unanswered”.