Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
All creatures big & sozzled
Allegations widen as Mordaunt threatens to axe Oxfam funding
ACTOR Peter Davison has revealed that the All Creatures Great and Small cast got drunk being served real beer for pub scenes.
Davison, who played vet Tristan Farnon in the BBC TV show, said work halted on one occasion as show star Christopher Timothy, 77, drank too much.
He said: “Once we had to stop filming to let Chris throw up in a bucket.” OXFAM faces losing out on millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash, as it emerged more than 120 workers for British charities were accused of sex abuse in the past year alone.
International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt blasted Oxfam’s alleged cover-up of its aid workers’ use of prostitutes.
She will today meet its bosses to demand answers, but warned: “If they don’t hand over all the information they have, I can’t work with them any more.”
Her department handed the charity £32million last year. Oxfam yesterday unveiled measures for preventing and handling sex abuse cases.
Yet it also emerged Oxfam did not tell agencies about accused staff taking new jobs. Haiti director Roland van Hauwermeiren quit in 2011 after using sex workers, but then joined Action Against Hunger. Oxfam said it has not given positive references for those sacked.
Ms Mordaunt told BBC1’S Andrew Marr Show the charity did “absolutely the wrong thing” by not reporting the detail of the allegations.
It came after the Charity Commission said Oxfam told of a sexual misconduct probe, but not potential sex crimes involving minors.
Oxfam said such claims are unproven.
Ms Mordaunt said no organisation could be a government partner without “the moral leadership to do the right thing”.
It was also claimed yesterday that women believed to be prostitutes visited the Oxfam team in Chad, Central Africa, in 2006.
And allegations against more than 120 workers from leading charities in Britain fuelled fears that paedophiles are targeting overseas aid organisations. The
WARNS OF AXING FUNDING
figures, collated by charities, cover sexual harassment in Britain and abroad.
Oxfam recorded 87 incidents last year; 53 were referred to police or other statutory authorities. A total of 20 staff or volunteers were dismissed.
Save the Children recorded 31 cases, 10 of which were referred. The charity said all 31 cases took place abroad and 16 people had been dismissed.
Christian Aid recorded two incidents of sexual misconduct, both overseas. One staff member was sacked, another disciplined.
The British Red Cross admitted a “small number of cases of harassment reported in the UK”, believed to be up to five. All four charities receive taxpayers’ cash from the Department for International Development.
Ms Mordaunt’s predecessor Priti Patel called the Oxfam claims the “tip of the iceberg”. She had not been aware of them, but said she raised concerns to DFID about sex abuse in United Nations charities. Ms Patel, who quit last year, told BBC Radio 5 live: “I spoke to whistleblowers. This is well-documented.
“Even UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and former secretary general Kofi Annan have publicly spoken about this. I raised this directly with my department. I have UN reports…there are 120 cases involving something like over 300 people.”
It also emerged Brendan Cox, widower of murdered Labour MP Jo, was accused of groping a senior US government official in 2015, shortly after he left his job with Save the Children.
The woman reported him to police in the US but they did not investigate the claims at her request, the Mail on Sunday said.
Mr Cox did not respond to a request for comment, but his lawyers told MOS he denied the “spurious allegations”.