UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent
Ben Emmerson QC: The human rights lawyer who was expected to lead child abuse inquiry is accused of ‘bullying’ and ‘intimidation’
PAUL GALLAGHER Wednesday 21 January 2015
Highly respected and admired for his work on Human Rights law, Ben Emmerson QC seemed like the perfect stand-in to steer the Government’s historical sex abuse inquiry when it was left without a chair for a second time after the resignations of Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf.
Many of his learned friends’ eyebrows were therefore raised this week when he was accused of having “bullied and intimidated” panel member and abuse victim Sharon Evans.
Ms Evans told MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday that she had made a complaint about Mr Emmerson to her MP “about the fact that I felt he was overstepping his mark, in terms of that advice and rewriting of letters [from panel members to Home Secretary Theresa May], because I feel the independence of the panel is important.”
Suddenly the spotlight is shining on the legal counsel who, in the words of the committee chair Keith Vaz, has been left “running the show”.
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