UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail
Child abuse inquiry chair ‘beyond the pale’ and must step down over dinner party links to top Tory Leon Brittan, say victims
The new chairman of the government inquiry into child sex abuse was dismissed as ‘beyond the pale’ for victims today because of her dinner party links to Leon Brittan.
Fiona Woolf admitted she entertained the former Home Secretary and his wife three times at dinner parties at her house, and twice went to his central London home for dinner.
The revelations showed she was not fit to oversee the official inquiry into historic allegations of child abuse, victims said today.
Asked whether Mrs Woolf should step down, Alison Millar, who represents a number of abuse victims whose cases are likely to be raised in the inquiry, said: ‘Yes. I think this evidence of dinner parties with Lord Brittan really puts her beyond the pale in terms of her credibility with my clients.’
Ms Millar told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘This is not about Fiona Woolf’s ability or her integrity. This is about her independence and her ability to lead this inquiry in a way that is credible to the survivors of abuse whom I represent.
‘The people that I am in contact with because they are my clients, or I am in contact with otherwise, the general view among them is that Fiona Woolf really does not have the necessary credibility to lead what is such an important inquiry for them.’
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