A prominent campaigner for the rights of abuse victims has claimed that Dame Lowell Goddard was hounded out of her role as chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
Peter Saunders, the founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) who sits on the inquiry’s Victims and Survivors’ Consultative Panel, told The Tablet: “I don’t think she went particularly willingly, I think she was pushed.”
Dame Lowell announced her resignation last week, days after the inquiry commenced its preliminary hearings. The New Zealand judge had come under fire for her salary and benefits, which included an annual accommodation allowance of £110,000, and for spending more than 70 days overseas. Her successor, Professor Alexis Jay, who helped to expose sex abuse in Rotherham and who sits on the inquiry’s panel, was named today (Thursday).
Describing Dame Lowell’s resignation as “a huge setback”, Mr Saunders said that she had the support of victims and survivors and had been hounded out of the role following media criticism. “I don’t think it was the grassroots who were in any way part of her going,” he said. “We had a good working relationship with her but some people didn’t give her a chance. It’s a pity that it was all done in haste because she certainly listened to survivors.”
He revealed that within 24 hours of her resignation victims’ groups and others had met with the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd. “We impressed on her not only the importance of the inquiry continuing but also reminded her that organisations such as NAPAC really struggle financially to survive and to meet ever increasing demand. More people are coming forward because at long last they think something is going to be done about this evil,” he said.
The inquiry is due to conduct an investigation into abuse within the Catholic Church, using the English Benedictine Congregation and the Archdiocese of Birmingham as case studies. At a preliminary hearing last month Dame Lowell indicated that hearings for the investigation would not begin until the second half of 2017 at the earliest. “It does seem incredibly bureaucratic and slow,” Mr Saunders said.
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