Save the Children ‘failed female staff’
FOURTH boss could face calls to quit over charity’s sex harassment scandal
A CHARITY chief is set to face calls to resign over claims that female staff were not protected from sex pest bosses.
Save the Children will be accused of ‘comprehensive failures’ in a report by the Charity Commission on Thursday.
The damning charges follow a twoyear investigation sparked by allegations of sexual harassment against two former bosses of the organisation.
Justin Forsyth, who had been its chief executive, was forced to quit a senior post with Unicef when the claims emerged in 2018. His former deputy Brendan Cox, widower of Labour MP Jo Cox, also had to stand down from a charity launched in her name.
The scandal claimed a third scalp when the charity’s chairman, Sir Alan Parker, quit.
Insiders say the watchdog’s report is likely to lead to calls for a fourth resignation – that of Mr Forsyth’s successor, Kevin Watkins. He was a trustee of the charity during the time it allegedly covered up misconduct.
Female employees claimed in 2018 that Mr Watkins was the fourth member of the ‘cosy club of men’ responsible for a ‘culture of complicity that led to the mistreatment of women’.
Mr Forsyth, 54, was accused of sending a barrage of ‘unsuitable’ text messages to female staff at STC. Mr Cox, 44, faced similar claims and was accused of sexually assaulting a senior female government official in the United States.
They joined STC after working in Downing Street for Gordon Brown. Both left the charity in 2015, Mr Cox after harassment allegations. Mr Forsyth denied quitting for similar reasons.
However both had been accused of misconduct – allegations that were swept under the carpet. Mr Forsyth landed the plum post at Unicef, which was not told about the complaints against him.
But he came under pressure when Mr Cox was forced to resign from the Jo Cox Foundation. It emerged there had been three complaints against Mr Forsyth from female STC staff between 2011 and 2015 and he resigned from his UN job.
The commission’s investigation focused on the charity’s failure to support women staff and claims that it protected Mr Forsyth and Mr Cox.
A source said: ‘STC let down women employees very badly and there were comprehensive failures in the way management dealt with the matter throughout. Mr Watkins has questions to answer.’
Mr Watkins has always denied any wrongdoing and says major changes have been introduced at STC to safeguard female employees. Mr Forsyth, who was paid £ 160,000 a year at STC, admitted to ‘ personal mistakes’ over sending three young women a large number of over-familiar text messages in his five years at the helm.
Female whistleblowers said he commented on their appearance, their clothes and how he felt about them.
If they didn’t reply to text mes
‘He has questions to answer’
sages, he would send them a follow-up email and even call them in for a chat, it was claimed.
A leaked email from the time recommended that Mr Forsyth should not be alone with female employees.
The allegations of misconduct against Mr Cox included a claim that he grabbed a woman by the throat outside a bar, telling her ‘I want to f*** you’.
In February 2018 it emerged that he had been accused of sexually assaulting a senior female US government official at Harvard University. The US police file said Mr Cox ‘grabbed (the woman) by the hips several times ... and forced his thumb into her mouth in a sexual way’.
He allegedly touched her inappropriately in a restaurant and tried to push her into drinking more than she wanted.
The alleged incident occurred in 2015 shortly after Mr Cox had left STC and nine months before his wife was murdered by a far-Right fanatic.
US police took no action and Mr Cox denied the claims.
But in a highly emotional interview he admitted making mistakes while he was at STC.
He said: ‘I want to apologise deeply and unreservedly for my past behaviour and for the hurt and offence that I have caused.’
The STC’s annual income plummeted by £100million to £303million last year in the wake of the scandal.
The Department for International Development withdrew its £16million grant and public contributions dropped by around £1million.
In a separate charity scandal it was revealed in 2018 that Oxfam staff used prostitutes in earthquake-hit Haiti in 2010.