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Lowell Goddard assures MPs she has no establishment links ahead of inquiry

By Alan Travis
Guardian
February 11, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/11/justice-lowell-goddard-establishment-links-child-abuse-inquiry-truth-reconciliation

Lowell Goddard leaves Portcullis House on Wednesday after being confirmed as the new chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse.

The New Zealand high court judge who is to chair the independent inquiry into child sex abuse has said she has no links to the establishment, telling MPs: “We don’t have such a thing in my country.”

Justice Lowell Goddard, who arrived in Britain on Monday, said she hoped to have the troubled inquiry “up and running” by early April and would aim to revisit past wrongs, clarify what happened and ensure children were protected from sexual abuse.

She also said she intended for the inquiry, which she has been told could take three to four years, to have a “truth and reconciliation” element to it, which would allow survivors to speak about their experiences in private if necessary, as well as an investigative function.

Goddard is the third chair of the inquiry nominated by the home secretary, Theresa May, since it was first announced last July in the wake of the high-profile historic sexual abuse cases, including that of the late television and radio star Jimmy Savile.

The first two chairs, also senior women judges, stepped down after being accused of facing conflicts of interest over their links to establishment figures or institutions implicated in the historic allegations.

Goddard, appearing before a Commons home affairs select committee pre-appointment hearing, said her experience of 18 years as a judge in New Zealand had led her to accept the job when she was approached by the British high commission.

She easily batted away allegations made by New Zealand bloggers about her record on the bench by pointing out that her prime accuser has been officially certified a “vexatious litigant” and stressing that her record on child abuse included passing the longest sentence in New Zealand judicial history on a man who abused and murdered two girls.

The committee chairman, Keith Vaz, expressed some concern that the hearing was taking place without a formal letter giving her full declaration of interests. Some MPs’ eyebrows were also raised when she said that she had heard of Kincora boys’ home in Northern Ireland but did not know any details of the historic scandal.

The committee is to publish its report on her appointment at midnight on Thursday. At the end of the hour-long hearing, Vaz described her one of the most distinguished judicial figures in New Zealand and said the MPs wanted to make some recommendations about her appointment.

Goddard has moved quickly since coming to Britain on Monday having already met the home secretary and representatives of survivors’ groups.

She said she would try to reconcile differences among the survivors’ groups but felt that they should not be directly represented on the inquiry panel, which was one factor behind Theresa May’s decision to disband the existing panel and start afresh.

Instead, Goddard said that it was likely that survivors’ groups would be represented on an external advisory group: “There are inherent risks in having people with personal experience of abuse as members of an impartial and independent panel,” she said.

The existing counsel to the inquiry, Ben Emmerson QC, and the existing secretariat, mostly seconded from Whitehall, are to continue in their role. One of her first tasks is to scope out the form of the inquiry into what she admitted was a massive scale of historic child abuse in Britain.

Asked by the committee how she would deal with any attempts to obstruct the inquiry “from up high or from the Establishment”, she replied: “We don’t have such a thing in my country”. She added that she had no personal links with any institutions implicated in the allegations.

Goddard said she would be moving to Britain to carry out the job. Her salary has yet to be settled but will be in line with that offered to the two previous chairs.




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