Abuse Probe Denies Claim Top Lawyer Quit over "Sex Assault" after Newsnight Alleges Cover-up of Allegation
By Rebecca Camber
The bombshell allegation reported by BBC Newsnight threatened to deal the ?100million Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse a fatal blow. It was alleged that the lawyer pushed a female workmate against the side of a lift and molested her at the inquiry headquarters in Millbank Tower last month. According to Newsnight, the alleged victim gave an account of the assault and the inquiry’s chairman Professor Alexis Jay and her panel were made aware the same day. She did not make a formal complaint, and Mr Emmerson was allowed to quit on September 29 after being suspended by the chairman over alleged ‘concerns over his leadership’. But last night the inquiry issued a statement denying there had been a complaint as Professor Jay faced allegations of a cover-up. Prof Jay gave the lawyer a glowing send-off just 24 hours after he was suspended. She was at pains to point out that there was no dispute between Mr Emmerson and herself, issuing an statement confirming his resignation saying he ‘has made an enormous contribution to the inquiry and we wish him well’. It is not true that an inquiry worker made a complaint of sexual assault to the chairman, or to the panel, or to an official Inquiry spokesman Last night an inquiry spokesman said: ‘The chairman fully stands by the statement she made on 29 September. ‘It is not true that an inquiry worker made a complaint of sexual assault to the chairman, or to the panel, or to an official.’ The alleged victim has refused to comment publically, but is understood to give little credence to the allegations. Her lawyers refused to comment to Newsnight. Mr Emmerson, who was on ?400,000 a year as the lead counsel, has carried on working for the inquiry at home being at a rate of ?1,700 a day. In his resignation letter, Mr Emmerson said he was no longer the ‘right person’ for the role. The top lawyer was regarded as the lynchpin, or ‘glue’ as one victim described him, holding the inquiry together as successive chairs quit. Handpicked by Theresa May when she announced the inquiry two years ago, the then Home Secretary feted him as ‘one of the UK’s most distinguished lawyers in the field of national and international human rights law’. Named barrister of the year by The Lawyer magazine this year, the 53-year-old father of four is a deputy High Court judge. Mr Emmerson, who is understood to have separated from his wife some time ago, is also the British judge on the international tribunals on war crimes in Rwanda and Yugoslavia and the UN special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights. The barrister, who is one of the founders of Matrix Chambers, has refused to comment on the reason for his suspension. Prof Jay and her two panel members, Drusilla Sharpling and Ivor Frank, remained silent about why the QC was suspended last week when they were questioned by MPs. Prof Jay said she would not comment on ‘anything to do’ with his circumstances. She denied having any disagreement with the barrister, telling the home affairs select committee: ‘There was no truth whatsoever in the suggestion that he and I had a disagreement about anything.’ But MP David Winnick, a senior members of the committee shot back: ‘Do you expect MPs to leave it at that?’ Daniel Janner, whose father Lord Janner is accused of historic sexual allegations which will be heard as part of the public inquiry, said last night: ‘This inquiry seems to be in meltdown.’ And former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, who was falsely accused of rape and murder by a fantasist during Scotland Yard’s shambolic VIP child-sex probe, said it should be ‘curtains’ for the inquiry. ‘This farce has had several acts and now the curtain must come down’, he said. ‘The public will be shocked, astounded, dumbfounded by these allegations given what this inquiry has been set up to investigate.’
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