Brian Altman Qc Named Lead Counsel for Child Sexual Abuse Inquiry

By Owen Bowcott
The Guardian
January 11, 2017

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/10/brian-altman-qc-named-lead-counsel-child-sexual-abuse-inquiry

Brian Altman QC is a former Old Bailey prosecutor specialised in serious crime and terrorism cases. Photograph: IICSA/PA

The former Old Bailey prosecutor Brian Altman QC has been named as the new lead counsel for the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.

Altman, who has specialised in serious crime and terrorism cases, replaces Ben Emmerson QC, who resigned last September amid disputes over the scale of the investigation.

Welcoming Altman’s appointment, the IICSA’s chair, Prof Alexis Jay OBE, said: “He is hugely experienced, having spent 16 years as Treasury counsel, the last two and a half years of which were as first senior Treasury counsel. This is an important appointment for the inquiry and I look forward to working with Brian.”

Altman said: “The government and the public have set the inquiry a huge challenge to investigate institutional responses to child sexual abuse in the past, and to report and make recommendations in order to prevent such abuse happening in the future.

“I am delighted to have been appointed to lead a team of lawyers dedicated to completing the task of the inquiry. I will work to ensure that the investigations and the public hearings are kept on track in order to deliver the terms of reference of the inquiry. I look forward to taking up my post.”

Altman, who works at 2 Bedford Row chambers in London, was called to the bar in 1981 and was appointed a QC in 2008. He has also specialised in fraud, bribery and corporate governance cases.

Past prosecutions have included that of Levi Bellfield, who was convicted of abducting and killing the schoolgirl Milly Dowler. Altman has secured convictions in a number of difficult ”cold case” murders and those where the victim’s body has never been recovered.

The inquiry into institutional child abuse was originally launched by then home secretary Theresa May in 2014. Last month, Prof Jay confirmed that all the planned investigative strands would still go ahead.

Jay has said she plans to deliver her recommendations in an interim report in 2018. No final completion date has been given for what is the largest public inquiry established in the UK. There have been suggestions it could last for up to a decade, costing tens of millions of pounds.

Andi Lavery, of the victims group White Flowers Alba, which supports people abused by members of the Catholic clergy and is a core participant in the inquiry, said he believed they should have been consulted over Altman’s appointment. Lavery, who has already called for Jay to resign, said he would “not cooperate with [Altman] in any meaningful way”.