UNITED KINGDOM
Yahoo! News
The email addresses of people who registered to a child abuse victims forum have been shared with others in a blunder by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse. On the first day the beleaguered inquiry began hearing public evidence after a series of setbacks, the addresses of those on the Inquiry Victims and Survivors Forum were mistakenly made visible to each other. The inquiry team issued an immediate apology and referred the issue to the Information Commissioner’s Office. It came as the inquiry heard about the torture, slavery and rape of children forced to live abroad under the child migrant schemes in the wake of the Second World War.
Many never recover and are permanently afflicted with guilt, shame, diminished self-confidence, low self-esteem and trauma.
One victim of the child migrant scheme, David Hill
The inquiry has been plagued by problems – not least the resignation of three of the chairman and disagreement between some of the key figures in the team. In 2015, a technical blunder caused the accounts of child sex abuse victims to be deleted before even reaching inquiry staff. The latest error saw the email addresses of those who registered for the inquiry’s Victims and Survivors Forum made visible to others on the list. Chief Press Officer Debbie Kirby said: “This morning the Inquiry has apologised to a number of email recipients whose email addresses were mistakenly accessible to others on the list. We have asked them to delete the email. “The email was sent to those people who have registered for the Inquiry’s Victims and Survivors Forum. We will be self-referring this issue to the Information Commissioner’s Office.”
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