Is this Inquiry working for survivors we ask. Do we get some insights from experiences to date?
Is the ''partnership'' with NSPCC effective - and for whom?
Do we - the concerned paying public - have confidence in the people and processes?
Let's review the track record?
An Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (
IICSA)
[1] in
England and Wales was announced by the British
Home Secretary,
Theresa May, on
7 July 2014. The inquiry was established to examine how the country's institutions handled their
duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse.
[
The first two chairs appointed to the original panel inquiry were
Baroness Butler-Sloss (appointed 8 July 2014, stepped down 14 July 2014)
[3] and
Fiona Woolf (appointed 5 September 2014, stepped down 31 October 2014).
[4][5] The reasons for their withdrawal in both cases were objections related to their perceived closeness to individuals and establishments which would be investigated.
On
4 February 2015 May announced that the inquiry would be chaired by
Dame Lowell Goddard QC, a
New Zealand High Court judge who had no ties to the UK bodies and persons likely to be investigated.
Some observations:
Two chairs withdrew because of closeness to individuals and establishments which "WOULD BE INVESTIGATED"
The wiki wording surely implies that Leon Brittan
(Fiona Woolf's bette noire) WILL BE INVESTIGATED in relation to
child sexual abuse? (The Jane rape allegation has
nothing to do with CSA - so why that was a focus of the HSAC grilling of Tom Watson is potentially revealing.)
Bishop Ball - that's just one of Butler-Sloss's 'closeness to individuals' - has now been tried and sentenced. The implication is that Sir Havers, (her brother) as a former Attorney General, will also be investigated - in relation to many questionable actions - not least his stance on Sir Peter Hayman
Now 15 months into the Inquiry - after numerous "re-sets" - what's the latest?
Peter McKelvie has resigned from the VSCP
The Inquiry is only now commencing the hiring of Investigators
AND
Information provided by victims to the independent child abuse inquiry has been PERMANENTLY IRRETRIEVABLY deleted
The inquiry admitted that, due to a change in its website address, any submissions through an online form between September 14 and October 2 was 'instantly and permanently deleted'
before it reached staff.
Really?
Curiously, research information not only appears to have 'reached staff' - but also to have been shared with police and council officials over that period.
Whilst that is the positive aspect - the negative is that private survivor testimony somehow became bundled up with the research data - even tho there was no contextual relationship..................
In essence, info regarding
Prospects for Young People (concerning Steven Elliot - ex Bryn Alyn director) was submitted on a research/child protection basis - not as survivor testimony.
Fuller details of Breach Of Information
and
here
There are allegations that Elliot covered for John Allen - the latter now serving a
min 11 year sentence (comments
here)
Maybe - (serendipity?) - NSPCC's staff passing on the information has prompted an investigation into the Bryn Alyn connections, since although Pallial and the Council had all the details previously, it is only now that there has been any attempt to follow up.
Being generous - let's put that down as an inadvertent plus for NSPCC staff?
However, this >>
Is a BIG MINUS
Leon Brittan
has not been cleared. Simply the CPS and police did not proceed with the 'Jane rape' case charges. So Wanless is still being witless - coupled to his inability to find documents, he is now spreading disinfo.
From the HSAC with Keith Vaz:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/21/tom-watson-apology-brittan-committee-fixating-on-honourifics?CMP=share_btn_tw
