U.K. Government Says Sex Abuse Inquiry Will Go on Despite Chair’s Resignation

By Nicholas Winning
Wall Street Journal
August 5, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-k-government-says-sex-abuse-inquiry-will-go-on-despite-chairs-resignation-1470398743

The U.K. government said it would continue the work of a high-profile inquiry into child sexual abuse after the chair resigned citing a legacy of failure, raising fresh doubts about the process.

Judge Lowell Goddard announced her resignation late Thursday in a two-sentence letter to Home Secretary Amber Rudd. She is the third inquiry head to quit; the two previous ones left following criticism they were too close to the establishment.

Ms. Rudd said the success of the inquiry remained an “absolute priority” and she planned to appoint a new chair as soon as possible.

In a statement issued after her resignation, Ms. Goddard said public inquiries are never easy to conduct, but the difficulties of this particular inquiry have been compounded by “its legacy of failure which has been very hard to shake off and with hindsight it would have been better to have started completely afresh.”

She said taking the job early last year had been an incredibly difficult step as it meant relinquishing her career in her home country of New Zealand and, “leaving behind my beloved family.” While she added that the inquiry had been a struggle in many respects, she was confident it had helped victims of child sexual abuse get their voices heard.