Is Goddard going beyond the inquiry`s terms of reference ?

by Joshua Rozenberg

"As its terms of reference make clear, the purpose of [the Goddard] inquiry is to consider the extent to which institutions have failed in their duty to protect children from sexual abuse in the past and to identify action needed to protect children in the future."

"Under the Inquiries Act 2005, she must not ‘determine any person’s civil or criminal liability’ – although an inquiry panel ‘is not to be inhibited… by any likelihood of liability being inferred from facts that it determines or recommendations that it makes’..."

"And in her opening statement last year, Goddard claimed that ‘the naming of people that have been responsible for the sexual abuse of children… is a core aspect of the inquiry’s function’. That seems pretty close to breaking the ban on deciding liability..."

"Perhaps frustrated by the Janner family’s entirely understandable decision to take no part in the inquiry, Goddard made a formal request for information to the solicitors acting for his estate. In a 29-page response, Michael Pether, from the insurance specialists BLM, told Goddard her inquiry was ‘akin to prosecuting a dead man’."

"What Janner’s children knew of their father’s professional and personal life totally contradicted the allegations against him, Pether said. They unequivocally believed that the allegations were false."

"There was also a risk that Goddard’s findings of fact might prejudice civil claims against the estate, Pether said. Many, if not all, of the complainants were seeking damages; although no claims had been received until last summer, when Janner’s dementia was so severe that he could no longer respond..."

"Pether claims that Janner was framed by Beck and another man, who is still alive. Shortly after Beck’s conviction, Janner told his fellow MPs that Beck and the other man had colluded to ‘make disgraceful, contemptible and totally untrue allegations of criminal conduct’ against him."

"Janner named the man at the time. He was also named last year, perhaps unwittingly, by the Daily Mail. But because he says that he was the victim of a sexual assault, I am not allowed to identify him. He is referred to by the Goddard inquiry as witness A31 and by Sir Richard Henriques, in a report to the DPP earlier this year, as complainant 1."

"Janner said in parliament that he and his family had tried to help complainant 1 in the mid-1970s, when he was a deprived youngster living in a Leicestershire children’s home. Pether told Goddard that Janner’s family saw this ‘as a continuation of his track record of outstanding and admirable, possibly naive, hospitality, befriending and endless generosity’."

======================

In response to Anne Wade who wanted to know why Janner was not prosecuted 25 years ago:

Rozenberg says: "The answer may have been an establishment cover-up, as she says. Equally, it may have been that prosecutors did not think that the available evidence would stand up in court."

"If Goddard can find out which it was, fine. I don't suppose that the answer will protect children from abuse in the future but it's certainly within her terms of reference."

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/analysis/comment-and-opinion/janner-a-misguided-inquiry/5055886.fullarticle


Perhaps determining whether or not the establishment covered up child abuse 25 years ago might give clues as to the extent of cover-ups today ?

Police are expecting 30,000 new child sex abuse complaints

The Macur review

"THE REPORT of the Macur Review — an examination of the work of the 1996-99 North Wales Child Abuse Tribunal — is a whitewash."

 

 

"Lady Justice Macur’s report was finally published on March 17 this year — nearly three and a half years after it was commissioned."

"She concludes:"

" `I have found no reason to undermine the conclusions of the Tribunal in respect of the nature and scale of the abuse.` "

"She brushes aside evidence submitted by Rebecca — one of the Tribunal’s major critics."

"She also rules out the existence of a national paedophile ring:
`Neither is there evidence of the involvement of nationally prominent individuals in the abuse of children in care in North Wales, between 1974 and 1996`."

"`Consequently, I do not recommend the establishment of a further public or private inquiry`."

"But Lady Justice Macur is also highly critical of the Tribunal.
Her team has done enough digging to find shocking shortcomings in its work."

"She could have condemned it as unfit for purpose."

Read more: https://paddyfrench1.wordpress.com/

Fairbridge to become part of Prince`s Trust

by Goody

"Britain’s Child Migrants"

"..unanswered questions about the rationale for the child migration policy and who drove it forward within a context of secrecy, deception and lies. "

"…need to address the relationship between the charities, the churches and the state in the implementation of this policy."

Quoting Liz Davies

"The forced migration of children as a social policy began in the 17th Century and continued for 350 years until coming to an end in 1970."

"It is estimated that 130,000 child victims of 200,000 parents were sent to Canada, New Zealand, Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) and Australia. Most child migrants had no idea of their birth families or the reason why they were sent to the colonies and parents were not told what had happened to their children. They were sent to populate the Empire with ‘good, white British stock’. Many of the children lived in large institutions and were used as cheap labour suffering abuse, cruelty and neglect..."

"The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Northern Ireland has already heard evidence from child migrants, as has the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse."

"It is not yet known whether the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in the UK will grant child migrants core participant status and therefore enable them to be legally represented."

"It is concerning that the main IICSA public hearings are not accepting personal accounts of child abuse which are instead being presented through the Truth Project strand of the Inquiry which is not part of the legal process of prosecution and justice."

"The [Fairbridge] society was one of several child migration charities which dispatched about 100,000 impoverished British children to Australia, Canada and other far-flung parts of the Empire from the late 19th century to the 1970s."

"Unlike Barnardo’s, which has acknowledged that its child migrant scheme was `shameful` and `barbaric`, Fairbridge has refused to apologise for past injustices."

"In January 2011 it was announced that Fairbridge will become part of The Prince’s Trust."

Read more: http://loucollins.uk/2016/04/25/britains-child-migrants-the-fairbridge-societythe-independent-inquiry-into-child-sexual-abuse-iicsa/