Now FIVE lawyers have quit child abuse inquiry: Two more resign as Janner case faces the axe

By Rebecca Camber And Izzy Ferris
Daily Mail
October 3, 2016

https://goo.gl/IzgJdF

Junior counsel Alexandra Felix (pictured) has recently quit the inquiry

Junior counsel Abigail Bright is said to have left after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse postponed hearing claims against the late Labour peer for seven months

The inquiry's top lawyer Ben Emmerson QC (pictured) was suspended last week 24 hours before he quit

Other costs last year include £3million for the hire of the inquiry's plush headquarters in Millbank Tower, Westminster (pictured)

The beleaguered child sex abuse inquiry was said to be in meltdown yesterday as it emerged that five lawyers have now quit.

Two barristers examining allegations against Lord Janner have recently resigned as the inquiry is having to consider axing its investigation into him.

Junior counsel Abigail Bright and Alexandra Felix are said to have left after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse postponed hearing claims against the late Labour peer for seven months.

Meanwhile the inquiry's top lawyer Ben Emmerson QC, who was appointed by Theresa May to be lead counsel, was suspended last week 24 hours before he quit.

His deputy Elizabeth Prochaska, with whom he was said to have worked closely, had quietly resigned for unknown reasons two weeks previously.

And Hugh Davies QC left in December after telling officials he no longer wanted to be part of the management team. It means two of Mr Emmerson's deputies have quit in the space of a year.

It is understood that Mr Davies had a difficult and tense working relationship with Mr Emmerson, 53.

The departure of the two barristers involved in the probe into Lord Janner comes with the inquiry facing the prospect of having to ditch its investigation of the peer who died last December. His family is seeking a judicial review of the decision to hold public hearings into the allegations against him.

Lord Janner's son, Daniel Janner QC, said that the public evidence sessions would amount to a 'kangaroo court' in which his late father would be accused of serious sexual offences against children and no opportunity would exist to cross-examine the alleged victims.

An inquiry spokesman insisted last night that they planned to plough ahead with the Lord Janner probe, but his son hopes that a High Court judge will overturn the decision. 'It's manifestly unfair that someone who is dead and can't answer back is accused in a proxy trial when we have been denied the right to cross-examine those making the claims,' Mr Janner said. He added: 'This inquiry seems to be in meltdown, no one knows what's going on and it's a travesty for the real complainants who want to get to the truth.'

Any decision to scrap the Lord Janner strand would devastate the alleged victims and signal the break-up of an inquiry which has been lambasted by many for being too large and unmanageable. Yesterday furious victims hit out accusing the chairman Professor Alexis Jay – the inquiry's fourth after three predecessors stepped down – of being 'patronising in the extreme' for failing to explain Mr Emmerson's suspension amid reports that it was closely linked to the departure of his deputy Miss Prochaska. Mr Emmerson and Miss Prochaska have declined to say anything amid speculation both have signed non-disclosure agreements in a possible payoff deal.

Suspicions were raised when Professor Jay released an extraordinary statement confirming Mr Emmerson's resignation and praising him on Thursday saying he 'has made an enormous contribution to the Inquiry and we wish him well', even though she had suspended him 24 hours earlier. Yesterday Andi Lavery, of Catholic survivors' group White Flowers Alba which represents 45 victims, said: 'There has been a cover-up here. The inquiry isn't serving the victims, it isn't serving the public.

'It's outrageous. If the inquiry won't tell us what is going on and why Ben Emmerson was suspended, how can we have faith that they can get to the truth of what happened in child abuse?'

Imran Khan, who represents 47 victims, wrote to the inquiry saying his clients had been kept in the dark which they considered to be a 'continuation of the abuse they suffered in the past'.

He said: 'The suspension of Ben Emmerson, an able and valued adviser to the inquiry who has the confidence of survivors, and the resignation of junior counsel has caused our clients untold distress. This distress is compounded by the fact that you saw fit, as you did with the resignation of Dame (Lowell) Goddard and appointment of Professor Jay as chair, to let them learn about it through the media.

'Your decision to communicate with them through a press release was dehumanising and its content patronising in the extreme.'

Michael Mansfield QC has also waded into the furore, saying he would be willing to consider a co-chair position to end the turmoil.

The barrister said a lawyer must be appointed to help Professor Jay, a former social worker, steer the inquiry: 'I'm very willing to consider it, but that's another issue as to who they want to do it. But they need another lawyer at the top because there are legal decisions to be made, and I'm afraid the present chair isn't a lawyer.'

Final bill to taxpayers could reach £200m  

By Rebecca Camber, Crime Correspondent for the Daily Mail  

More than £3million has already been paid out to lawyers involved in the child sex abuse inquiry amid claims the final bill for the probe could top £200million.

The runaway costs have been laid bare in official figures which show that the inquiry has spent £3.2million on 27 lawyers, who charge up to £200 an hour.

Another £4.2million has been spent on staff – before a single word of evidence has been heard in what is likely to be the biggest public inquiry in British legal history.

The figures show that £660,035 has been spent on counselling for victims, even though their allegations have yet to be heard and proved. More than £75,000 has been blown on stationery alone. Taxpayers have also forked out £705,874 for 'consultants and specialist services' to advise the inquiry and £2.3million on computers.

The figures show that the inquiry, announced by Theresa May in 2014, spent £14.7million in the last financial year.

Other costs last year include £3million for the hire of the inquiry's plush headquarters in Millbank Tower, Westminster, and regional offices opening in Liverpool, Darlington, Cardiff and Exeter to hear a flood of claims, with around 100 new allegations being reported a week. The accounts also show that the New Zealand judge who stepped down last month as chairman cost the taxpayer more than £500,000 last year.

Dame Lowell Goddard, who was the third chairman to resign, earned a £355,000 salary, with taxpayers also paying £119,207 for rent and utility bills on her Knightsbridge flat plus £29,156 in relocation costs and £67,319 for flights.

Her successor, Professor Alexis Jay, will have a salary of £185,000 and a £35,000-a-year London accommodation allowance.

The inquiry had originally been earmarked to last around five years, but now victims' lawyers say it will drag on for a decade. Costs could soar as high as £200million if the hearings, anticipated to cost £20million per year when they start next February, continue for ten years.