Ex-head of child sex abuse inquiry Dame Lowell Goddard branded a ‘disgrace’ for refusing to come to UK to be questioned by MPs
New Zealander quit and flew home after allegations of her making racist remarks surfaced
THE ex-head of Britain’s biggest child abuse inquiry who quit after allegedly making racist remarks has been labelled a “disgrace” after refusing to appear in front of MPs.
Dame Lowell Goddard is said to have told colleagues that the UK has so many paedophiles “because it has so many Asian men”.
that senior figures close to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse made the claim.
Dame Lowell, 67, is also accused of complaining of having to travel 50 miles from London to see a white face.
The New Zealander quit the £500,000-a-year post as inquiry head in August after less than 18 months in the position and flew back to her country just days after her resignation.
Yvette Cooper, the chair of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, said they would be considering what action they could take to force Dame Lowell to appear before them if she ever came back here.
In a letter to Ms Cooper - reportedly released to the New Zealand media by her husband - Dame Lowell insisted there were no "unanswered" issues relating to her time with the inquiry.
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And she hit out at the Government for failing to defend her from what she said were "malicious defamatory attacks" in the British media.
Ms Cooper, who has yet to receive her letter, said Dame Lowell's response was "astonishing" given the circumstances of her resignation.
She said: "Dame Lowell Goddard's refusal to give evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee about her resignation from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) is disgraceful.
"Dame Goddard has been paid significant amounts of public money to do an extremely important job which she suddenly resigned from, leaving a series of questions about what has been happening over the last 18 months and why the inquiry got into difficulties.
"Yet rather than give oral evidence to answer these questions she is relying on the fact that she is out of the UK to avoid the requirement to give evidence to Parliament.
"The committee has always believed it is vital that Dame Lowell Goddard gives oral evidence to us and we will explore what options are available to us to require her to come before the committee should she enter the UK again at any time in the future."
In the letter Dame Lowell also wrote she had volunteered to give detailed written reports instead of oral testimony in a bid to "maintain judicial independence."