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Child abuse inquiry’s legal adviser is asked to explain ‘bullying’ row to MPs

By Alan Travis
Guardian
January 21, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/21/child-abuse-inquiry-legal-adviser-westminster-bullying-row

Ben Emmerson said the complaints had already been investigated by the Home Office and dismissed as unfounded. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

The troubled official inquiry into child sex abuse has come a step closer to its early demise with its legal counsel, the leading human rights lawyer Ben Emmerson QC, being summoned by MPs to clarify his call for the removal of one of its members.

The move by Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, comes a day after the panel member, Sharon Evans, a child abuse survivor, said Emmerson had “bullied and intimidated” her.

Emmerson reacted to her allegations, made during a committee evidence session on Tuesday, by pointing out her complaints had already been investigated by the Home Office and dismissed as unfounded. He also claimed that Evans, as a member of the inquiry, had repeatedly disclosed confidential information and made a number of factually misleading public statements.

His defence was supported by a statement signed by the remaining seven panel members expressing full confidence in Emmerson’s integrity and rejecting any suggestions that they had been intimidated.

The dispute is threatening to bring to a complete halt the work of the inquiry, which was set up in July by the home secretary, Theresa May, to investigate historical child sex abuse allegations, including claims that a paedophile ring operated at Westminster in the 1980s.

The inquiry is still without a chairman after the resignation of two of the home secretary’s nominees over alleged conflicts of interest.

Vaz said he wanted to call the inquiry’s counsel to give evidence to the committee in the light of his reaction to Evans’s allegations.

“These developments must be leaving the survivors aghast. It cannot be in the best interests of victims for the legal adviser to the panel to call for the removal of a panel member who has made a complaint against him, who has asked her MP, a member of the cabinet, to write to the home secretary and who has also just given evidence to a select committee,” he said.

“This adds to the perception that the inquiry has lost its way. It is regrettable that the committee has still not received the name of the home secretary’s preferred candidate to chair of this inquiry. We hope Mr Emmerson will be able to clarify these matters when he appears before us.”

Speculation over the extent of an alleged paedophile ring at Westminster 35 years ago was fuelled on Wednesday by the discovery of a Downing Street file listed in the National Archives catalogue as “Security - allegations against former public [missing word] of unnatural sexual proclivities; security aspects 1980 Oct 27 - 1981 Mar 20.”

The file has not been released at the National Archives and remains under lock and key at the Cabinet Office.

“In this case, the file was kept closed and retained as it contained information from the security services and advice from the law officers. These classifications are reviewed periodically,” said a Cabinet Office spokesman.

“We are clear that any files that are pertinent to the historical child sex abuse inquiry will be made available to the panel.”

 




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