HASN’T LEON BRITTAN’S WIDOW SUFFERED ENOUGH?

IF YOU think Theresa May’s handling of Brexit has been a farce, that’s nothing compared with what’s being going on at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) — the quasijudicial monster she set up in 2014 while Home Secretary.

In those five years, it has seen the resignations of three chairwomen (men are barred from that role, it seems), is likely to cost well over £100 million (to the enrichment of lawyers, at the expense of taxpayers) and has achieved … well, what exactly?

Now we learn that Lady Brittan — the widow of the late former Home Secretary Leon Brittan — has received a letter from the Inquiry warning that she is likely to be ‘upset’ by the fact that it will soon be ‘re-examining’ allegations that her husband had been a child sexual abuser.

Let’s be clear: these ‘allegations’ have been thoroughly rejected following a multiyear investigation by the Metropolitan Police. Not only that, the person responsible for those allegations is now facing trial for perverting the course of justice.

And the Met agreed to pay Lady Brittan compensation of £100,000 for what they put her through during their absurdly prolonged investigations (which included digging up her garden in a grotesque search for the remnants of what the accuser claimed were Brittan’s victims).

I had thought the IICSA was charged with investigating real child sexual abuse and not the fantasies of sick individuals.

Diana Brittan has already suffered enough as a result of these slurs. Her husband’s memorial service in 2015 was not attended by Theresa May — the first time that a serving Home Secretary had not so honoured the passing of a predecessor.

Mrs May didn’t even send a junior official to represent her. She should be ashamed. As for the IICSA, it has become a taxpayer-funded festival for ghouls.