Dame Lowell : "Racist" and "Aggressive" or Just Forthright?

By Tom Parmenter
Sky News
October 14, 2016

http://news.sky.com/story/dame-lowell-racist-and-aggressive-or-just-forthright-10616806

Dame Lowell's lawyers have been instructed to address the allegations

During her 18-month stint leading the Child Sexual Abuse Inquiry, Dame Lowell Goddard said many of the things you would expect.

She talked about building trust with survivors, respecting their rights, and her inquiry adopting a rigorous unflinching pursuit of the truth.

She quit in August complaining the inquiry was just too big, but now faces unseemly allegations of being "aggressive", "abusive," and even "racist," behind closed doors.

Now, one person's "aggressive" is another person's "forthright."

Though it is the alleged racist remarks that make the story so staggering.

Is it really possible this highly educated, massively experienced judge uttered to colleagues some ugly and plainly untrue ideas that stigmatised Britain's Asian community?

New Zealander Lowell Goddard has Maori heritage, has overseen many high profile cases and has sat on a UN committee on the prevention of torture.

People within the inquiry tell me they have struggled to find anyone who identifies with the idea of her as the closet racist.

Her denials are strong and her lawyers have been instructed to address the allegations. It may end up in the courts.

On one level it is now irrelevant to the inquiry as Goddard has gone back to New Zealand and the new chairwoman Professor Alexis Jay is working hard to get the enormous process back on track.

Whatever the truth of the allegations, the survivors who have bravely engaged with this process deserve better.

Unfortunately, we have said that quite a few times now.