SCOTLAND
Scotsman
by CHRIS MARSHALL
Published on the 15 July 2014
WHILE the decision to appoint Baroness Butler-Sloss to lead an inquiry into historical child abuse may have seemed eminently sensible to the Home Secretary, it’s easy to see why it caused so much disquiet.
An establishment figure with links to the Tory party and an esteemed career behind her, the former judge would have been an obvious choice for Theresa May.
Yet the baroness’s establishment connections were ultimately what did for her, leading her to step down as the head of the inquiry.
Butler-Sloss’s late brother, Sir Michael Havers, was attorney general in the 1980s, a time associated with claims of paedophile rings within Westminster and high-level cover-ups.
Labour MPs were among the first to raise objections to Butler-Sloss’s appointment, but it was concerns from victims, who will clearly play a crucial role in the inquiry, which made the former judge’s position untenable.
But while she erred in her choice of its head, the Home Secretary’s decision to establish an inquiry is to be welcomed. The high-profile cases of Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris have shown how survivors of abuse can find the strength to come forward when a spotlight is shone on the darkest recesses of the past.
The work of the inquiry will be difficult and it is likely to unearth yet more painful truths not only about the perpetrators of abuse, but those who seemingly turned a blind eye and allowed it to continue.
Sadly, there is currently no inquiry into such abuse in Scotland.
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