UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail
By REBECCA CAMBER and EMILY KENT SMITH FOR DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 19:07 EST, 28 October 2016 | UPDATED: 19:51 EST, 28 October 2016
The chairman of the beleaguered child abuse inquiry faced explosive new claims of a cover-up last night after it emerged that its top lawyer had been accused of sexual assault.
Ben Emmerson QC, lead counsel to the inquiry, yesterday rebutted claims that he groped a female colleague in a lift at the headquarters of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
The allegations emerged when BBC Newsnight claimed that Mr Emmerson, the most senior lawyer in the country’s biggest public inquiry, had been allowed to quit after the accusations.
The inquiry said yesterday that neither its chairman, Professor Alexis Jay, her panel nor any official were aware of any complaint of sexual assault before Mr Emmerson resigned.
But last night a source close to the inquiry said the alleged victim had made a ‘disclosure’ to another member of the inquiry that was passed to Professor Jay and the panel before Mr Emmerson’s departure.
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