The Power of the Paedos - another high profile case hits the 'never happened' wall?

[David Guyatt]

Oh dearie me, victim rigging?

Theresa May's child sexual abuse inquiry faces new storm

Two members of panel face calls to resign after being accused of sending insulting letters to victims who criticised inquiry

• Daniel Boffey, policy editor
  
• The Observer, Saturday 6 December 2014 20.00 GMT
  

Theresa May, the home secretary, has already apologised for delays in finding a chair for the abuse inquiry. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters

Two members of Theresa May's panel inquiring into child sex abuse are facing calls to resign after being accused of sending threatening or insulting emails to victims who had criticised the inquiry.
Lawyers for one abuse survivor have written to the home secretary to complain of a string of unsolicited communications, including an allegedly threatening email sent two days before an official meeting that both panellists and an abuse survivor were due to attend.
The victim, who is on medication for post-traumatic stress disorder, was left too anxious to attend the "listening meeting" in November. The development will be a huge embarrassment to May, who has already seen two chairs to the inquiry stand down since it was launched in July, both over conflicts of interest. A source close to the inquiry's secretariat said the emails should not have been sent, leaving the fate of the panel members in doubt.
The inquiry has been set up to consider whether, and the extent to which, public bodies and other non-state institutions have taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse in England and Wales from 1970 to the present day.
At a meeting on Friday between government officials and victims of abuse, survivors were told by the Home Office's director of safeguarding that the allegations against panel members were being examined by an unnamed QC. Survivors told officials they had "lost all confidence" in the inquiry as it was currently constituted.
Andrew Lavery, whose whistleblowing has led to a police investigation into abuse by monks at a Catholic boarding school in Scotland, has complained that he was left highly distressed after receiving an email from panel member Graham Wilmer.
A letter sent by Lavery's solicitors at Leigh Day claims that their client, who first had contact with Wilmer in 2013 through his charity, the Lantern Project, which offers help to abuse victims, "has received a number of unsolicited communications from Mr Wilmer following the end of their telephone contact".
The letter adds: "These have included repeated requests from Mr Wilmer asking Mr Lavery to get in contact with him. Mr Lavery has not responded to these requests. Mr Lavery's key concern is raised in relation to an email which he received from Mr Wilmer on 5 November 2014. This was sent following Mr Lavery's conversation on 5 November 2014 with a member of the child sex abuse inquiry secretariat about attending a meeting with the inquiry on 6 November. Mr Lavery regards the contents of the email to be threatening. Mr Lavery is of the belief that as a panel member, Mr Wilmer should not be contacting individual survivors in this manner. He was very distressed by the contents of the email and consequently did not feel comfortable about attending the meeting."
Wilmer, who was himself abused as a child, has denied that he intended the email to be threatening. His email, which has been seen by the Observer, suggests he was provoked into emailing Lavery by a social media row between a separate abuse victim and his adult son, Rory, who had sought to confront those who criticised his father's place on the panel.
In his email, which accuses his critics of "crossing the line", he writes: "I'm looking forward to meeting you on Friday. I've watched and listened to your media interviews over the past few days, and I've looked at all the Twitter feeds you and Ian [McFadyen] have pumped out. The insults you have issued about me, I have no problem with; you are entitled to your opinion. However, what has been said about my son, Rory, is a different matter."
Alison Millar, a lawyer for Leigh Day, told the Observer: "The panellist's private communications with our client, a man who is deeply traumatised by his experience of abuse, certainly seem ill-advised to us."
Lavery, who lives in Newcastle, said that he did not want Wilmer to be humiliated, but that he needed to stand down for the sake of the credibility of the inquiry.
Meanwhile, Peter McKelvie, a former child protection manager whose allegations led to the launch of the ongoing Operation Fernbridge police inquiry in 2012, has complained about an inappropriate email from a second panellist.
After McKelvie publicly raised questions about Barbara Hearn's appointment, she falsely accused him of posing as a female blogger who had been causing her distress.
McKelvie, 65, who has no presence on social media, said he would continue to call for Hearn's resignation because of her previous employment at the National Children's Bureau, where a leading member of the Paedophile Information Exchange, Peter Righton, worked as a consultant between 1972 and 1974.
McKelvie also highlighted a potential conflict of interest in Hearn's connections with social work managers from the Labour-controlled Islington council in north London, when there was widespread sexual abuse in children's homes. Hearn was appointed to the NCB in the 1990s by John Rea Price, who had been director of social services at Islington council.

This is what The Needle has to say on the matter:

Signatory To Letter To The Home Secretary Sent Inappropriate Images To CSA Survivor.

It's really sad to see survivor attacking survivor.
But sadly it happens.
I think we're seeing it more right now because the CSA Inquiry appears stalled.
Anything I publish is only in response to media manoeuvres by others.
Right now I'm responding to this story, just published, in The Guardian HERE
I've known this from the moment I saw the list of signatories in the letter to the Home Secretary a few days ago but it was only earlier today that the survivor contacted me herself and we discussed it. The original letter including all the signatories can be found HERE
The female survivor of child sexual abuse, currently a witness in a criminal investigation connected to a prominent police operation, received this unsolicited contact via email and it contained inappropriate images of young girls in bondage. The survivor made a complaint to the police at the time about 18 months ago and contacted me about it at the time.
It's not for me to say anything more than that other than that the survivor has indicated to me that she will make the complaint once again given the prominent role that this person has assumed.
I'd prefer this to stop. I'd prefer it if otherwise good people weren't attacked but just so we're clear, if it continues then so will I. Every action will have an equal and opposite reaction.
This is only undermining the case for all survivors.

The letter concerned:

An open letter to Theresa May demanding a fit for purpose' child abuse inquiry

Rt Hon Theresa May MP, Home Secretary, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF

Dear Theresa May

As survivors and associated professionals, we were very much hoping to take up the invitations to engage with your Ministerial Officers to discuss the Child Sex Abuse Inquiry but we regret to say we have to decline. We, alongside many survivors, have made numerous representations to you regarding our view that the Inquiry as it stands is not fit for purpose. Its Terms of Reference (ToR) are inadequate for delivering the original declared intentions of the inquiry, namely to investigate government and establishment cover ups of paedophiles in their ranks and aiding bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Secondly, both your appointees to Head the Inquiry Panel have had to be forced out by survivors because of obvious conflicts of interest, and you have failed to address similar issues regarding other Panel appointees.

Thirdly, that the cut-off date for the Inquiry investigations was set at 1970 is highly disturbing given that the 1969 Children's Act transferred Home Office run youth establishments, from which thousands of abuse allegations eventually emerged. It highlights the lack of transparency regarding the Home Office's dealings with the Inquiry, not to mention the apparent obfuscations and manipulations in the defence of the appointment of Fiona Woolf. As a result, the Home Office seems to be running the Inquiry to meet others' needs rather than those of survivors and the public.
We therefore have little option but to end engagement with the Inquiry and call on other survivors, whistleblowers, associated professionals and agencies to follow suit until, as Home Secretary, you:
announce the scrapping of the current panel and its replacement on a transparent basis
declare a statutory inquiry
announce that the TOR will focus on: 1) Organised & Institutional Abuse hearing evidence from survivors of such abuse 2) Extending the cut-off date to 1945 and linking with Inquiries in other parts of the UK 3) Setting up a dedicated police team at the National Crime Agency to take evidence alongside the inquiry to investigate and prosecute offenders 4) Holding those that have failed in their professional duty or covered up allegations or been obstructive to account.

Yours faithfully

Andy Kershaw and Tony Martin (Survivors of Forde Park)
Bobby Martin, Gang Intervention Advisor & Islington Care Home Survivor
Luke Payne, Child Trafficking Survivor.
Nigel O'Mara, Former Survivors' Helpline Counsellor/ Public Relations Officer
Caroline Carnot, Author & Founding Executive Care Leavers Association
Peter McKelvie, Whistleblower and former child protection worker
Dr Liz Davies, Reader in Child Protection, London Metropolitan University
Ruth Stark MBE, President International Federation of Social Workers
Ann Davis, Emeritus Professor of Social Work and Mental Health, University of Birmingham
Phil Frampton (Founding Chair, Care Leavers Association 2000-04)
Stephen Morris, Church of England Children's Society Careleaver
Brian Douieb, Former Leaving Care Social Work Manager
Les Huckfield MP for Nuneaton 1967-83. MEP for Merseyside East 1984-89
Dr Kenneth McIntyre, CPsychol, AFBPsS
Dr Paul Redgrave, Director of Public Health, Barnsley 2004-09
Ed Nixon, Chief Executive, Family Care Associates
Anne Southworth, Senior National Education Specialist (Audit Commission) Retired
Dr Rachel Chapple, Social Anthropologist, Founder, Real Stories Gallery Foundation
Councillor Ann Kerrigan
Ann Mallaby, Justice Campaigner
Andrea Enisuoh, Community Organiser, Hackney Unites
Miriam Day, Writer and survivor of childhood sexual abuse
Robert Chewter, Campaigner