UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Eleanor Ainge Roy in Dunedin and Alan Travis
Tuesday 8 November 2016
The former chair of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse has accused the British government of failing to defend her when she was accused in the press of racism.
Dame Lowell Goddard, a former high court judge from New Zealand, resigned from the inquiry on 4 August after less than 18 months.
In her resignation letter, Goddard cited the inquiry’s “legacy of failure” in her decision to step down. Goddard was the inquiry’s third chair to resign since it was established in July 2014.
However, in a letter to the chair of the home affairs select committee, Yvette Cooper, Goddard went further, saying she was “disappointed” the British government had not defended her against “malicious defamatory attacks in some UK media”.
But her refusal to appear before the committee prompted further criticism, with Cooper saying it was “disgraceful” and an “astonishing response” from a paid public servant.
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