UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Wednesday 11 February 2015
The New Zealand high court judge who is to chair the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse has said she has no links to the establishment, telling MPs: “We don’t have such a thing in my country.”
Justice Lowell Goddard, who arrived in Britain on Monday, said she hoped to have the troubled inquiry “up and running” by early April and would aim to revisit past wrongs, clarify what happened and ensure children were protected from sexual abuse.
She also said she intended for the inquiry, which she has been told could take three to four years, to have a “truth and reconciliation” element to it, which would allow survivors to speak about their experiences in private if necessary, as well as an investigative function.
Goddard is the third chair of the inquiry nominated by the home secretary, Theresa May, since it was first announced last July in the wake of the high-profile historic sexual abuse cases, including that of the late Jimmy Savile.
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