Dame Lowell Goddard & Child Abuse

LAST night's resignation of Dame Lowell Goddard the chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, has sent shock waves through the media and horrified the child support agencies.  A few minutes ago it was revealed that the chair of the Commons home affairs committee, Keith Vaz  had written to the New Zealand judge, who announced her resignation on Thursday night, to ask whether she would appear before the committee when parliament returns 'to help us in determining what is going to happen in the future'.
The Guardian website has reported that the chair of the Commons home affairs committee, Mr Vaz, has asked Dame Lowell Goddard to appear before MPs to explain her sudden resignation as chair of the public inquiry into institutional child abuse, the third person to quit the role in little over two years.
The Labour MP told Sky News: “She is someone with impeccable credentials, so this is a big shock that she chooses to resign now. I think what’s really important is that we find out the reasons why she has decided to take this course of action.”
Mr. Vaz said he wanted to know more about the reasons behind the departure of Goddard, whose resignation statement said the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, set up in 2014, was beset with a 'legacy of failure'.
Keith Vaz said he had written to the New Zealand judge, who announced her resignation on Thursday night, to ask whether she would appear before the committee when parliament returns 'to help us in determining what is going to happen in the future'.
The Labour MP told Sky News: “She is someone with impeccable credentials, so this is a big shock that she chooses to resign now. I think what’s really important is that we find out the reasons why she has decided to take this course of action.”
Vaz said he wanted to know more about the reasons behind the departure of Goddard, whose resignation statement said the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, set up in 2014, was beset with a “legacy of failure”.

Northern Voices, which took a leading role in the revelations surrounding Cyril Smith in Rochdale, has long thought that this Enquiry into Child Abuse had bitten off more than it could chew.  But politicians such as Simon Danczuk, the disgraced MP for Rochdale, and Tom Watson MP, insisted that this matter could only be approached by a vast overarching public enquiry such as that of Justice Goddard. 

Now child abuse pundits are questioning the remit of the enquiry.                  

Sue Berelowitz, the former deputy children’s commissioner, has called for a review into the inquiry, which was established by Theresa May when she was home secretary.  She told The Guardian:

'There should be a review of where it has got to and how it is doing,” Berelowitz said.  'It seems to me the inquiry has lost its way. The real importance of learning lessons about institutional failings in the past is to stop children being abused today.

'I think there needs to be some reform of the inquiry. I don’t think it was right for it to have been set up as a quasi court for hearing individual cases. In a sense the inquiry has got too specific.'

Meanwhile, Graham Wilmer, who established the Lantern Project, which helps victims of sexual abuse, and was a member of the abuse inquiry panel under its second chair, Woolf, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the existing structure was 'far too complicated'.

He said: 'There are just too many people involved trying to cause difficulties for this inquiry, and I think the best solution now would be not to have a chair but to appoint one of the very capable existing panel members. The infrastructure is superb. It’s a massive inquiry but it has got some massive resources. They just need to be allowed to get on with it.'

Vaz added: “Because although we’ve had ministers and parliament and others involved, she of course has been intimately concerned with establishing this very difficult inquiry, so what she has to say is extremely pertinent, and I don’t really think a resignation letter or a statement is enough.”
Following a brief resignation letter to the home secretary, Amber Rudd, Goddard released a statement that indicated that the controversies and challenges of the inquiry were insurmountable.
Without fully explaining her reasons, Goddard said it had been “incredibly difficult” to take on the job, and leave behind her family in New Zealand. Earlier this week it was reported that the judge had taken three months’ holiday since being appointed in April last year.

Others, like Lucy Duckworth, who sits on the inquiry’s victims and survivors’ consultative panel, are determined to soldier on, insisting the process would continue despite Goddard’s departure.

Readers shouldn't hold their breath for any relevant findings anytime soon.