Dame Lowell Goddard preferred to work alone, MPs told

Dame Lowell Goddard was a New Zealand High Court judge

 

Dame Lowell Goddard, the former head of an inquiry into child sexual abuse, kept panel members at a distance and would have rather worked alone, MPs have heard.

Professor Alexis Jay, her successor, told the Commons Home Affairs Committee that despite this, they tried to make arrangements work.
Dame Lowell Goddard, the inquiry's third chairwoman, resigned in August.
The committee is quizzing new chair Alexis Jay and two panel members.
One of them, Ivor Frank, was asked whether Dame Lowell Goddard was a "nightmare to work with".
"I would not use that language. I would prefer to say there were challenges," he replied.

Comments

Post a Comment

What's Popular

Ethiopian Airlines: Ground all Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, says CEO

Image
The boss of Ethiopian Airlines has called for the grounding of all Boeing's 737 Max 8 aircraft until it is established they are safe to fly. Many countries have already suspended the plane after one the airline's jets crashed on Sunday minutes after take-off, killing all 157 people on board. Tewolde Gebremariam told the BBC that although the exact causes were still unknown, there were similarities to a Lion Air crash last October. But US officials say the jet is safe. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said a review had showed "no systemic performance issues" and that there was no basis for grounding the aircraft. 'Grounding is right thing to do' Sunday's Nairobi-bound plane was the same type as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed in October, killing 189 passengers and crew, and Mr Gebremariam said there were other similarities. He accepted that Boeing and the FAA must have their reasons for arguing that the 737 Max 8 is safe. ...
Read more

Jung Joon-young: K-pop star quits over secret sex videos

Image
A second K-pop star has dramatically quit the music business, in a growing industry sex scandal. Jung Joon-young, 30, admitted to secretly filming himself having sex with women and sharing the footage. "I admit to all my crimes," said Jung in a statement. He also promised to drop all his TV and music work. It comes a day after  superstar Seungri from the group Big Bang quit the industry  after he was charged with sex bribery. Jung, who is accused of taping 10 or more women, is due to be questioned by Seoul Metropolitan Police on Thursday. "I filmed women without their consent and shared it in a chatroom, and while I was doing so I didn't feel a great sense of guilt," said Jung in the statement released late on Tuesday. It came after South Korean broadcaster SBS reported allegations that he had filmed his own sex videos without his partners' permission, and shared them with friends in a mobile chat group during 2015-16. S Korea women protest...
Read more

Trump says Florida shouldn’t arrest adults with "personal amounts" of Marijuana on them...

Image
  Former President Donald Trump on Saturday said he thinks adults in Florida shouldn’t be arrested for having “personal amounts” of marijuana in their possession, as the state’s voters are set to weigh in this November on recreational use of the drug.  Trump said in a  new post on Truth Social  that he thought the proposal, known as Amendment 3, would pass. “In Florida, like so many other States that have already given their approval, personal amounts of marijuana will be legalized for adults with Amendment 3. Whether people like it or not, this will happen through the approval of the Voters, so it should be done correctly,” Trump wrote.  Trump called for the Florida state legislature to “responsibly create laws that prohibit the use of it in public spaces, so we do not smell marijuana everywhere we go, like we do in many of the Democrat run Cities.” “At the same time, someone should not be a criminal in Florida, when this is legal in so many other States. We do...
Read more

Google diversity head removed over anti-Semitic blog post

Image
  Google has removed its head of diversity over a 2007 blog post that said Jewish people had "an insatiable appetite for war and killing". In a post about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that resurfaced this week, Kamau Bobb also claimed Jewish people had an "insensitivity" to suffering. The post has now been deleted. On Thursday, a spokesperson for Google told the BBC that Mr Bobb would "no longer be part of our diversity team going forward". "We unequivocally condemn the past writings by a member of our diversity team that are causing deep offence and pain to members of our Jewish community," they said. "These writings are unquestionably hurtful. The author acknowledges this and has apologised. He will no longer be part of our diversity team... and will focus on his Stem [science, technology, engineering and maths] work. "This has come at at a time where we've seen an alarming increase in anti-Semitic attacks,"...
Read more