Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Yvette Cooper: Lowell Goddard's refusal to testify is 'a disgrace'


Dame Lowell Goddard, the former chair of the independent inquiry into child sex abuse, has been branded “a disgrace” for refusing to answer questions from MPs about her resignation.

Yvette Cooper, the chair of the Commons home affairs select committee, said the New Zealand former high court judge’s refusal to give evidence even by videolink was “an astonishing response” from a paid public servant.

MPs are now urgently considering whether they can compel Goddard to give evidence to the committee should she set foot in Britain again.

Goddard’s refusal to answer any further questions from MPs either by returning to London or by videolink from New Zealand was made clear in a letter she sent to Cooper on Monday in which she claimed that doing so would pose “an unacceptable risk” that “malicious defamatory attacks in some UK media could be repeated”.

Goddard said the letter would be her final act relating to her former position as chair of the inquiry, and she would no longer be responding to requests for interviews or comments.  (more...)

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