BishopAccountability.org
 
 

Communications Head Quits Child Abuse Inquiry over ‘personal Life Changes’

Police Professional
February 13, 2017

http://www.policeprofessional.com/news.aspx?id=28457

Resignation: Bron Madson

Britain's biggest child sex abuse inquiry has been hit by another high-level departure.

Media chief Bron Madson has left the troubled Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) amid reports of tensions over a consultancy firm that has been paid nearly ?300,000.

Ms Madson quit her role as head of communications as the IICSA revealed that it has paid the consultancy firm Crest Advisory ?294,232 since 2015 for “strategic communications advice”.

She stepped down from the inquiry – beset by a flurry of departures in recent months– after an enhanced role was afforded to Crest.

She and her team are said to have been frustrated by the reluctance of senior officials and members of the panel to “engage with the media” at a time when the future running of the inquiry was in doubt.

The IICSA applauded Ms Madson for “helping the inquiry through a very challenging time and a period of significant change”.

An IICSA spokesperson added: “Due to changes in her personal life, she has decided to leave to pursue new ventures."

IICSA chairwoman Professor Alexis Jay has rejected suggestions that the remit of the inquiry is too broad to succeed – describing its scope as a "virtue".

She said she plans to make recommendations in an interim report in 2018 and spoke of her determination to make "substantial progress" by 2020.

However, no final completion date has been given for what is the largest public inquiry ever established in the UK.

There have been suggestions that it could last for up to a decade.

In December Professor Jay – the inquiry’s fourth head since it was launched by Theresa May in 2014 – published a review. Thirteen different investigative strands spanning several decades and examining a host of different institutions are currently being pursued.

Last month leading criminal barrister Brian Altman QC took over as lead counsel for the inquiry from Ben Emmerson QC, who resigned following accusations of sexual assault. He was later cleared of “groping a colleague in the lift”.

Other counsel to leave include senior lawyer Aileen McColgan – who cited “serious leadership concerns” for her resignation – and Tony Fisher, one of the first three barristers appointed to the inquiry, over its "progress and direction".

 

 

 

 

 




.

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.