Rudd dragged deeper into abuse probe chaos: Home Secretary admits she DID hear claims that judge wasn't up to the job

By Rebecca Camber And Jack Doyle
Daily Mail
October 17, 2016

https://goo.gl/drFpJW

Miss Rudd was accused of being ‘economical about what she knew’

Dame Lowell Goddard has strongly refuted the allegations about her

Professor Alexis Jay took over from Dame Lowell Goddard in August

The Home Secretary last night admitted she had been aware of racism allegations against the ex-chairman of the child abuse inquiry.

Amber Rudd said she was alerted about allegations over Dame Lowell Goddard’s ‘professionalism and competence’ several weeks before she told MPs the judge had quit because she was ‘lonely’.

Miss Rudd was accused of being ‘economical about what she knew’ after the admission, which follows claims of a Home Office cover-up.

She told MPs last month that New Zealander Dame Lowell had left the inquiry because she felt lonely and ‘a long way from home’.

The beleaguered public inquiry threatened to turn into a political scandal last night as:

    Victims called for chairman Alexis Jay to resign as she signalled the probe’s remit will be cut back, so it does not last beyond 2020;

    Dame Lowell Goddard strenuously denied claims she ‘turned to drink’ at the inquiry;

    Its top lawyer, Ben Emmerson QC, was accused of ‘bullying’ behind the scenes.

Hauled before the Commons yesterday, Miss Rudd said it would have been ‘entirely inappropriate’ to tell the home affairs committee about the racism allegations against Dame Lowell.

In evidence to the committee on September 7, she said of the judge’s departure: ‘I think she went – I have to say that it is a matter for her, but I have the information that you have – because she found it too much … ultimately she found it too lonely, she was a long way from home and she decided to step down. That is all the information I have about why she decided to go.’

But yesterday Miss Rudd admitted she became aware on July 29 that concerns about Dame Lowell’s ‘professionalism and competence’ had been raised by inquiry staff with a senior Home Office official.

‘On July 29, the secretary to the inquiry met my permanent secretary and reported concerns about the professionalism and competence of the chair,’ she said.

‘My permanent secretary encouraged the inquiry to raise those matters with the chair.

He reported this meeting to me the same day.’ Despite this, Miss Rudd agreed to a payoff of almost £90,000 for the New Zealand judge when she resigned as chairman on August 4.

The Home Secretary revealed there was a meeting between her permanent secretary Mark Sedwill and inquiry panel members on the day Dame Lowell quit. It will prompt speculation the judge quit under pressure from ministers.

Labour MP Lisa Nandy said Miss Rudd had ‘serious questions to answer’ about why she authorised the payoff when she ‘knew of the serious concerns’.

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said Miss Rudd was open to ‘accusations of misleading the committee’, and the SNP’s Stuart McDonald said she may have been ‘economical with what she knew’.

But Miss Rudd defended her original evidence in the Commons yesterday, saying: ‘Dame Lowell had not spoken to me about her reasons, so I relied on the letter she had sent to the committee.

In her letter she said she was lonely and felt she could not deliver – and that was why she stepped down.

Dame Lowell has strongly refuted the allegations about her. The only way we could understand properly why she resigned would be to hear from Dame Lowell herself. To echo any further allegations, which are now likely to be the subject of legal dispute, would have been entirely inappropriate.’

But Tim Loughton, acting chairman of the committee, said it was ‘inconceivable’ the Home Office did not know of problems with Dame Lowell earlier. The judge denied claims yesterday that she ‘turned to drink’ as the £100million probe spiralled out of control. She issued a detailed statement denying allegations she was drunk on occasion during her 18 months in the role.

Her comments come after contested claims last week that she was racist and abusive to inquiry staff – which have been dismissed by her husband as ‘total rubbish’.

Yesterday she issued a statement through her lawyers.

Persephone Bridgman Baker, an associate from libel firm Carter-Ruck, said: ‘Our client has never “turned to drink”, the imputation of which is that she used it either as an escape or as a means of support. Our client has never needed a “chaperone in public” as a result of alcohol intake.’

Last week it was reported in another newspaper that a senior inquiry official had been ‘permanently drunk’ and ‘expressed racist views on official business’.

But Dame Lowell’s lawyers hit back saying: ‘To the best of her recollection, our client went out only five times for lunch during the whole of her time at the inquiry.

‘Her invariable daily practice was to have a sandwich lunch at her desk for efficiency, where – clearly – no alcohol was consumed.’

The statement comes after a Westminster source claimed: ‘Things had got so toxic they had to bring in a mediator between her and the other panel members.’

As the judge faced calls from Miss Rudd to appear before the committee, she was at her home east of Wellington. Her husband Christopher Hodson, also a judge, said: ‘She will be saying nothing, she will not be adding anything.’