Public set to pay bill for alleged fantasist

TAxpAyerS are set to pick up the legal bill for an alleged fantasist at the public inquiry into child sex abuse.

esther Baker has been invited to apply for public funds to be represented at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse by its chairman, professor Alexis Jay.

It follows the Mail’s revelations last month that the 35-year-old, who has made unsubstantiated rape allegations against a former Liberal democrat Mp, has been made a ‘core participant’ at the inquiry into a supposed Westminster paedophile plot.

explaining the decision to grant Miss Baker core participant status, professor Jay said she had alleged ‘she was sexually assaulted by persons of public prominence associated with Westminster and that there were institutional failings in connection with that alleged abuse by police and law enforcement services’.

In a statement, professor Jay said Miss Baker had a ‘significant interest’ in the investigation and she would be given directions to apply for expenses to ‘ be incurred in respect of legal representation’.

Sources said it was ‘a formality’ that Miss Baker would have her legal bills paid by the taxpayer. Core participants can make opening and closing statements at hearings, suggest lines of questioning, and receive electronic disclosure of evidence.

She accused ex-Mp John Hemming and others of repeatedly raping her in a forest at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, in the 1980s and 1990s when she was between the ages of six and 11 – while police kept guard. But police dropped an investigation into her claims after prosecutors ruled there was insufficient evidence to press charges. Miss Baker emphatically denies being a fantasist and making up her rape story.