Below is an article I wrote for the Daily Mail, you can see it on their website here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3853836/TIM-LOUGHTON-MP-Child-sexual-abuse-far-important-stop-inquiry.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
The good news is that the horror that is child sexual abuse has probably never had such a high profile amongst the public in the UK. I say ‘good news’ as we all have a responsibility to be vigilant, to report and root out this particularly pervasive form of child abuse which is much more widespread geographically, socially and culturally than many had ever appreciated. A culture of denial and cover-up had side-lined this for too long.
The bad news is the headlines have been dominated by the shortcomings and goings of those at the top of the historic child sex abuse inquiry set up by the now Prime Minister in 2014 to get to the bottom of how so many vulnerable children were systematically failed by society over so many decades. The Inquiry is now on its fourth chair, the departure of senior legal advisers has been shrouded in mystery, huge amounts of public money have been spent and it is unclear what progress it has bought to date.
Elsewhere, police and the justice system have come in for criticism for the ham-fisted way they have pursued investigations against high profile public figures and celebrities or the ham-strung way they have not pursued investigations against high profile public figures and celebrities. On the face of it things are going from bad to worse. Not surprisingly there have been calls by many, including in this newspaper, to ditch an Inquiry that has become an unguided witch-hunt, too complicated and too expensive. Shouldn’t we just concentrate on the future?
The one thing that has not changed throughout all of this of course is the fact that many thousands of survivors from child sexual abuse over the last half century and more are still lacking answers, affirmation, natural justice and with that some form of personal closure. The vast majority of them will not have seen their abusers splashed across the media because they had some form of celebrity status. This media obsession fraught with problems has all too often led to the false impression that case was almost the preserve of now ageing popular entertainment presenters from the childhoods of those of us of a certain age.
In reality, the people denied justice were some of the most vulnerable children in care systematically abused in residential children’s homes by people put in positions of trust. Or they were the victims of perverted priests in vicarages or religious schools, or teachers in music or military schools. They were patients in hospitals or receiving treatment from highly respected cancer specialists. It may even have involved elected politicians or senior members of the judiciary. They could not possibly have done anything as bad as this so just shut it and stop causing trouble.
Too many of these victims were ground down by a system in denial or in deceit where police refused to take their allegations seriously even if they had not been intimidated out of going to the authorities in the first place. In some of the worst examples of the betrayal of a professional duty of care some even involved in social care claimed that some of these children had it coming to them and turned their backs. Whilst there are many survivors of this abuse many victims tragically didn’t make it and died before their cause was ever recognised by society.
For all these people simply concluding that it has all got too costly and complicated would be a major vindication of the betrayal which they have experienced for years, leading to many of the more desperate conspiracy theories that this Inquiry was always set up to fail. For many there is no chance of criminal prosecutions being pursued let alone being successful, not least because many of the perpetrators are dead.
This is their last realistic chance of justice and explanation. But the society that allowed this to go on below the radar, out of the courts and thereby out of public consciousness, is alive and kicking and has a duty of reparation and to do the right thing. Only when this has been achieved can we hope to move forward with confidence that the mistakes of the future are being designed out of our system for protecting children in the future.
As Children’s Minister in November 2011 before the game changing Savile revelations I devised the Government’s Child Sexual Exploitation Action Plan since when much has been achieved. Subsequently I was one of the first to call for an overarching inquiry into the whole panoply of historic child abuse to address:
What exactly happened and why, and were institutions involved in systematic cover-up and how did they get away with it?
When did things start improving and how?
Have all practical steps being taken to give survivors the confidence to come forward, and for the police to pursue vigorously any remaining offenders?
Most importantly, have all our major institutions which have significant dealings with children brought in child protection policies and practices that are fit for purpose in 2016 to deal with modern day technologically savvy perpetrators?
This was never going to be a straightforward endeavour and to give her her due it was brave of Theresa May as then Home Secretary to set it up in the teeth of strongly complacent opposition from Number Ten. Alas in all my dealings with him in this area David Cameron never displayed any real interest in child protection matters unless there was a political gain to be made as with tragedies like Baby P. Despite urging him to set up the Inquiry twice re refused to acknowledge the extent of the problem doing irreparable damage to its credibility when it eventually got going and systematic distrust of those appointed to lead it.
That is why this inquiry is so important and must be allowed to continue to get on with its work which it has been doing despite the shortcomings of some of the highly paid luminaries at its head. I was therefore very encouraged when we heard from the current (and hopefully last) chair of the Inquiry at Home Affairs Select Committee yesterday that the Inquiry is open for business and there will be some refocussing of its activities to make sure that it can deliver on the task it was set up to do and hopefully by 2020.
Alas there was a lot of ‘pleading the 5th Amendment’ as to why they could not answer questions about all the goings on at the Inquiry that has so knocked confidence in their ability to get on with their job. It is right that the Inquiry under statute must be independent and politicians, who in any case may be a target of their investigations, must not be seen to tamper with or steer its deliberations. But they were appointed by Parliament and are spending a great deal of taxpayer’s money to get to the truth on behalf of many of our constituents. Their head and their work must be held to account by someone to make sure they are doing the job they were tasked to do and spending public money wisely.
We cannot afford serious matters like this running into the sands of time as we learned from Chilcot with the end result that what little trust there was evaporates. Child sexual abuse is far too important for that.