SCOTLAND
Scotsman
CHRIS MARSHALL
Wednesday 11 January 2017
Later this month, judge Lady Smith will convene the preliminary hearing of Scotland’s national child abuse inquiry.
It feels as if the hearing has been a long time coming, taking place more than two years after the inquiry was announced by the Scottish Government.
It is almost a year since then chairwoman Susan O’Brien held a public session at a Glasgow hotel in which she made an emotional plea for survivors to come forward and give evidence.
Much has happened in the intervening months. Ms O’Brien has gone along with fellow panel member Professor Michael Lamb, who resigned citing government interference and describing the inquiry as “doomed”.
Indeed there were points last year where the inquiry looked set to follow in the footsteps of its larger and more controversial English counterpart, which has lurched from crisis to crisis.
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