UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Sandra Laville
Friday 14 October 2016
The Home Office admitted for the first time on Friday that concerns about the conduct and professionalism of Dame Lowell Goddard had been raised with it six days before she resigned as chair of the national public inquiry into child abuse.
Goddard had earlier branded the claims made in the Times, including the suggestion that she linked Britain’s child abuse problem to its population of Asian men, “totally false”.
In a statement, the Home Office said that concerns were raised about Goddard by people within the inquiry on 29 July. They were advised to take their worries up with the chair. Six days later, Goddard resigned.
The admission that there were issues of concern that led to the resignation raised questions about the evidence given by the home secretary, Amber Rudd, to MPs on the matter. Rudd told the home affairs select committee last month that Goddard had quit in August because she was lonely. She made no mention of her department being made aware of concerns about the conduct of the New Zealand judge.
Making her debut appearance in front of the influential home affairs select committee in Westminster, Rudd, citing a letter from Goddard, said: “I think she went … because she found it too much for her, and although she could contribute to it and there was some good work done in the past year, ultimately she found it too lonely.”
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