Lowell Goddard accused of treating sex abuse victims with contempt

By Daniel Boffey
Guardian
August 13, 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/13/lowell-goddard-sex-abuse-victims-contempt

Justice Lowell Goddard spent more than 70 days working abroad or on holiday during her time at the inquiry. Photo by Suzanne Plunkett

Lawyers for nine men said to have been repeatedly sexually abused at school have accused Justice Lowell Goddard of treating their clients with contempt and costing them money by “walking off” from the troubled child abuse inquiry.

The men who attended Stanhope Castle approved school in Co Durham travelled to the high court in London, days before the judge from New Zealand resigned, to offer evidence as to why they should take part in the independent inquiry into child sex abuse.

Even though the men – one of whom has been bed-bound for more than a decade – are vulnerable individuals who claim to have been “seriously and repeatedly sexually abused” as children, they were not offered any resolution on their application for “core participant” status before Goddard quit.

Their lawyer, David Enright of Howe & Co solicitors, has written to Keith Vaz, chair of the Commons home affairs select committee, to complain about the treatment of his clients by the judge, who was on an annual pay package of £500,000. In a letter obtained by this newspaper, Enright says: “My clients were shocked that, subsequently and just days after they had made their renewed application for core participant status to Justice Goddard, she resigned with immediate effect.

“At no time, in the interim, did she consider it appropriate to determine my clients’ applications, which had been made before her and after a number of my clients had travelled to London to be present in the high court ...

“My clients rightly consider it entirely unacceptable for a senior judge to, seemingly, simply walk off the job (or be asked to leave her job) before determining their applications for core participant status.” It is understood that Vaz, who has called on Goddard to explain her resignation to his select committee, will question the judge over her treatment of the men.

Goddard has not yet given full reasons for her resignation, but she has said that conducting such an inquiry was “not an easy task”.

It has been suggested that she was effectively pushed out over doubts over her knowledge of UK law. It was also reported that Goddard had spent more than 70 days working abroad or on holiday during her time in charge of the inquiry.

An inquiry spokesman said that the 67-year-old judge, who was appointed in April 2015, had spent 44 days in New Zealand and Australia on inquiry business and was entitled to 30 days’ annual leave.

Meanwhile concerns have been raised about the appointment of Alexis Jay, who was on a panel of advisers to the inquiry, as the new chair.

Phil Frampton, of the White Flowers campaign, an umbrella organisation for survivors’ groups, said: “The new chair of the child sex abuse inquiry, Alexis Jay, has 30 years of working as a senior social work executive in Scotland.

“Has anybody thought to ask the home secretary what will happen when Ms Jay is called up before the Scottish child abuse inquiry, either as a witness or as a defendant, in regard for example to cover-ups, failures to act, etc?

“Given Alexis Jay is very likely to have to answer to the Scottish child sex abuse inquiry, this could leave the UK [independent child abuse inquiry] in ruins again.

“There is once again a clear conflict of interest, imperilling the authority of the inquiry and its very existence. After three bungled appointments, the government is totally irresponsible with the inquiry – to such an extent one can only draw conclusions that Theresa May and Co have been willing it to fail from the off.”