Child sex abuse inquiry could be new Chilcot and last for a decade
Public hearings into Janner allegations delayed as Goddard deals with 100 fresh claims every week
THE Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse could run for at least a decade, it was claimed last night, in the wake of a significant delay to its first public hearings.
The warning, made by a lawyer acting for victims, will add to growing concern that the inquiry risks being overwhelmed.
A source close to the inquiry said there was now a grave “danger we are heading for another Chilcot”, referring to the inquiry into the Iraq war that took six years to complete. The inquiry, in announcing its postponement of public hearings into claims against Lord Janner of Braunstone, said it was also sifting through 100 fresh allegations of abuse every week and was passing up to 25 a week to police forces.
Witnesses were expected to begin testifying against Janner in September but Dame Justice Goddard, the New Zealand judge who is chairing the inquiry, adjourned public hearings until next March “at the earliest”. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, expected to be the largest in British legal history and earmarked to last five years, could now go on far longer and cost hundreds of millions of pounds.
Peter Garsden, a partner with Simpson Millar law firm representing 16 alleged victims of Janner as well as victims in other strands of the inquiry, said: “This could take at least 10 years. There is so much material to go through.” He said his clients welcomed the scope of the inquiry but were concerned it would take too long, “reawakening memories of abuse” without the prospect of closure for some years.
The Goddard inquiry is currently looking at 13 separate claims of historic child sex abuse involving institutional cover-up, of which the strand involving Janner was expected to be the first. Other areas under investigation include the Catholic and Anglican churches and abuse in children’s homes in Lambeth.
So far 188 applicants have been granted “core participation” status, allowing them tax-funded lawyers.
Ben Emmerson QC, who is counsel to the inquiry, told a preliminary hearing, held yesterday at the Royal Courts of Justice, that “we are receiving 80 to 100 allegations a week and we are making an average of 20 to 25 police referrals each week”. This amounts to 1,000 new police inquiries a year.
About 25 lawyers, including barristers and solicitors, attended yesterday’s preliminary hearing – the vast majority paid for by the taxpayer.
The inquiry, costing £18 million a year, has 155 staff, including lawyers and civil servants, and opened offices in Liverpool, Darlington and Cardiff alongside its London headquarters.
Mr Emmerson said the inquiry had reviewed files held by MI5 on Lord Janner and was reviewing those held by MI6 and GCHQ. It is unclear what material, if any, those files contain.
The delay to the Janner hearings followed an objection by Leicestershire police that public testimony could jeopardise criminal inquiries into abuse at children’s homes in Leicestershire where Janner is accused of preying on his victims.
Janner, who died aged 87 in December, is alleged to have abused children dating back to the 1950s. Janner’s family insist the peer is innocent.