How Child Abuse Inquiry Lurched from "Catastrophe to Catastrophe" – Timeline
By Nadia Khomami and Matthew Weaver
Ben Emmerson QC has been suspended from the the troubled inquiry into institutional child abuse before he was expected to resign over disagreements with the fourth chair, Alexis Jay. His suspension is the latest setback to an investigation that has lurched from “catastrophe to catastrophe”, according to leading campaigner and child abuse survivor Ian MacFadyen. The former director of public prosecutions, Lord MacDonald, said the inquiry had been “careering out of control since its inception”. Here is a summary of the inquiry’s brief and beleaguered history: 7 July 2014 Theresa May, then home secretary, announces a public inquiry into child abuse prompted by allegations of a cover-up of the crimes of prominent offenders such as Jimmy Savile and Cyril Smith. She says the inquiry has the remit of investigating whether “state and non-state institutions”, including churches, Westminster, schools, the BBC, hospitals and care homes, have taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse within England and Wales. May says: Our priority must be the prosecution of the people behind these disgusting crimes … Wherever possible – and consistent with the need to prosecute – we will adopt a presumption of maximum transparency. And … where there has been a failure to protect children from abuse, we will expose it and we will learn from it. Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, the retired senior judge who chaired the Cleveland child abuse inquiry in the late 1980s, is appointed as chairwoman. The former president of the family division of the high court, who coined the phrase “listen to the children” in her Cleveland report, says she is honoured to be asked to carry out “this important work”.
9 July 2014 Lady Butler-Sloss faces calls to quit due to a potential conflict of interest over a family connection. Her late brother, Sir Michael Havers, was attorney general in the 1980s, when reports of child abuse were allegedly not examined properly. But both May and the then prime minister, David Cameron, stand by her appointment. 14 July 2014 Butler-Sloss resigns as chair of the panel, saying in a statement: It has become apparent over the last few days that there is a widespread perception, particularly among victim and survivor groups, that I am not the right person to chair the inquiry. It has also become clear to me that I did not sufficiently consider whether my background and the fact my brother had been attorney general would cause difficulties. Butler-Sloss’s decision to stand down is a blow to the government, which appears to have rushed into appointing her. 5 September 2014 Dame Fiona Woolf, a leading tax lawyer and then lord mayor of the City of London, is appointed as the new chairwoman of the inquiry. She says: Ensuring lessons are learned from the mistakes which have been made in the past and resulted in children being subjected to the most horrific crimes is a vital and solemn undertaking. I was honoured to be approached to lead such an important inquiry and look forward to working with the panel to ensure these mistakes are identified and never repeated.
22 October 2014 A child sex abuse victim launches a legal challenge against Woolf’s appointment over her suitability for the role. She is accused of having a “close association” with Leon Brittan, the late Conservative peer against whom allegations of sex abuse were dropped. Calls for Woolf to resign intensify after it emerges that the Home Office helped her rewrite a letter detailing her contacts with Lord Brittan seven times in a way that played down their relationship. 31 October 2014 Woolf becomes the second person to quit as chair. In interviews, she says she realised she needed to “get out of the way” after losing the confidence of victims. I am obviously sad that people are not confident in my ability to chair what is a hugely important inquiry impartially. I don’t think that it was going to be possible for me to chair it without everybody’s support. The departure is a major embarrassment for the government and raises questions about May’s judgment. 4 February 2015 May tells the House of Commons she is disbanding the former inquiry into child sex abuse and setting up a new statutory inquiry. Dame Lowell Goddard – described as “one of the most respected and experienced judges in the Commonwealth” – is announced as its chairwoman. Goddard has been chair of New Zealand’s Independent Police Conduct Authority and sits on the UN subcommittee on the prevention of torture. She is reported as having said: There have been very few people throughout my career that I have not been able to relate to in any way. These were the paedophiles and the psychopaths. Usually I could relate in a professional way to anyone, no matter what they had done. 11 February 2015 Goddard’s appointment is officially endorsed by the home affairs select committee. Goddard says she has no links to the establishment, telling MPs: “We don’t have such a thing in my country.” 12 March 2015 The new inquiry is set up with the same remit as the first. May says she has listened to demands from survivors that the period of time covered by the inquiry be extended. She says the inquiry is to be placed on a statutory footing “to compel witnesses to determine whether state and non-state institutions have taken seriously their duty of care to children”. 29 April 2015 Goddard announces the inquiry will conduct a full investigation into the issues surrounding the allegations of sexual abuse against Greville Janner, citing clear public interest over the adequacy of institutional responses to allegations against public figures.
9 July 2015 Goddard officially opens the inquiry at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London. She says it will not shrink from naming individuals who have abused children and the institutions that allowed it to happen. 16 October 2015 The former child protection manager Peter McKelvie resigns from the inquiry’s victims’ and survivors consultative panel as it is revealed that he may face questioning over his own handling of pursuing allegations of child sex abuse. 27 November 2015 The inquiry announces its first 12 investigations and Goddard says she is committed to completing the inquiry in five years. The investigations include allegations of child sexual abuse linked to Westminster. Also in its sights are children in the care of Lambeth and Nottinghamshire councils; Cambridge House and Knowl View school in Rochdale and Rochdale council; the Anglican church and the Roman Catholic church. The inquiry will also investigate child sex abuse on the internet, custodial institutions, residential schools and child exploitation by organised networks. Goddard says: To run 12 investigations in parallel represents an organisational challenge that is unprecedented in a public inquiry in the United Kingdom. We are determined to succeed and expect full co-operation of all institutions and individuals who can assist us in our work. 19 December 2015 Lord Janner dies aged 87 after suffering dementia. He was due to face a “trial of the facts” after a high court judge ruled he was unfit to stand trial on charges relating to child abuse. Liz Dux, abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon, who represents six of Janner’s alleged victims, says: This is devastating news for my clients. They have waited so long to see this case come before the courts. To be denied justice at the final hurdle is deeply frustrating. Worse still is that so many opportunities to bring this matter to justice whilst he was well were missed. All they have ever wanted is to give their evidence in court and have these very serious allegations tested and to be believed. 9 March 2016 The inquiry holds its first hearing on Janner, who faced allegations that he had abused 30 victims from the mid-1950s until the late 1980s. 4 August 2016 Goddard writes to the home secretary, Amber Rudd, to offer her resignation citing her career and family life. It comes 24 hours after she is criticised in reports for taking three months’ holiday since being appointed. But her statement suggests there are deeper reasons for resigning, which date back to the inquiry’s inception, and its troubled beginnings. Rudd says the inquiry will “continue without delay” and a new chair will be found.
11 August 2016 Prof Alexis Jay, a child protection expert with more than 30 years’ experience is appointed to take over as the fourth chair of the inquiry. She led the official inquiry into the Rotherham scandal, which found that at least 1,400 children were sexually exploited in the town between 1997 and 2013. Jay, Scotland’s former chief social work adviser, has been a member of the inquiry panel from the start. Her appointment was called for by some survivor groups, who said she had a good track record and was not seen to have any establishment links. But Andi Lavery of the group White Flowers Alba, who has core participant status at the inquiry, said survivors did not want a social worker running the inquiry as members of the profession were among those who had failed to protect them. He said they wanted a legal figure such as the QC Michael Mansfield to be offered the job.
8 September 2016 Hundreds of alleged victims of abuse threaten to boycott the inquiry after learning that it will not hear evidence from people who were aged 18 or over at the time they were abused The Shirley Oaks Survivors Association, also threatens to pull out after suggesting that the independence of the inquiry had been undermined by the fact that Jay, had spent 30 years working in social services. 28 September 2016 Lead counsel to the inquiry, Ben Emmerson is suspended before he was expected to resign over apparent disagreements about the remit of the inquiry under its fourth chair, Alexis Jay. Ian McFadyen, a campaigner and a victim of abuse, said Emmerson’s suspension was a “devastating blow for survivors”. In a statement, the independent inquiry said it had “become very concerned about aspects of Mr Emmerson’s leadership of the counsel team”. It did not elaborate. Lawyers acting for Emmerson said he will respond when allegations are put to him.
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