It is possible that Prime Minister Theresa May is the luckiest British politician of our time. She seems to have completely dodged any responsibility for the debacle surrounding the instigation of the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). The fact that May has emerged politically unscathed with a reputation of businesslike competence is nothing short of remarkable, due in no small part to the Labour Party obsession with its leader rather than providing opposition. Needless to say. the people who have been forgotten appear to be the people in desperate need of closure, the abuse survivors.
A Weak Notion of Independence
As neither an abuse victim myself nor someone who has experience of supporting victims I am not qualified to begin to comment on the specifics this most sensitive of areas. But looking at the IICSA in an organisational context is a different matter and much is revealed about the attitude of the authorities, which casts doubt on a succesful outcome. I start by encouraging you to view the IICSA website. Looking at the About Us section we find the following statement:
Being independent means the Inquiry is not part of government and not run by a government department.
This seems a particularly weak interpretation of ‘independent’. It should go much further with a statement that it is neither subject to government influence nor censorship. The notion of independence is further weakened since much of the suspicion falls on establishment institutions which are outside the technical boundaries of Government such as the Police, Lords, the Church of England and the Judiciary. To this list can be added those members of the Royal Family aside from the Queen and Prince of Wales who are not part of the Government but most certainly part of the establishment. I shall return to this issue later.
Next, consider the appointment of the chairperson. So far three IICSA chairs appointed by the (Government) Home Secretary have resigned. In some cases the chair has been appointed despite the reservations of the victims groups. So much for independence from Government! Prior to the appointment of both the current (Alexis Jay) and previous chair (Lowell Goddard) a strong preference was indicated for renowned Human Rights lawyer Michael Mansfield QC. Despite Mansfield indicating a willingness to take the chair he was overlooked. This is in spite, or perhaps because of, his clear record of taking on cases such as the Birmingham Six and Hillsborough Inquest which directly challenged the establishment version of events. More surprising was the promotion of panel member Professor Alexis Jay as the new chair (current at time of writing). MPs had already demanded an opportunity to question previous chair Goddard on the reasons why the stood down. Apart from the fact that she had been paid a significant sum of public money for no tangible result, there were reports of tension within the inquiry. So without any public understanding of the reasons for the sudden and unexpected resignation, an appointment from within is an unsatisfactory situation. Certainly Professor Jay has an excellent reputation, having been involved in the Rotherham child abuse inquiry but we cannot know what role, if any, she played in the possibly toxic climate which led to Goddard’s resignation.
Establishment Honours and the Credibility Deficit
If we take a reasonable view of democracy as holding those in power to account then institutions must exist to allow an oppressed minority to seek a voice and settlement. In such a case it is vital not only for justice to be done but that justice is seen to be done. So certain actions involving members of the panel take on a puzzling aspect. Firstly, the panel members were, once again, appointed by the Home Secretary. Now take the example of panel member Professor Malcolm Evans, an expert in issues involving the victims of torture. Professor Evans was appointed to the IICSA panel in March 2015 and a short while later in December 2015 he was awarded a knighthood in the 2016 New Year Honours List. The award (a KCMG to go with his existing OBE!) was nominated by the Foreign Secretary. In an area where public confidence in investigating the establishment is understandably fragile, to offer the ultimate establishment reward to a panel member seems staggeringly insensitive. That Professor Evans accepted the honour (and presumably agreed to have it prominently displayed on the website), ignoring the possible light such an award might be viewed, casts doubt on his judgement. It is also worth mentioning that Alexis Jay also possesses an OBE (and panel member Drusilla Sharpling a CBE) while Michael Mansfield lists no establishment awards on his profile.
The issuing and acceptance of honours is a subject in itself which is too large to be dealt with in the context of the present post (but which I visit in a separate post). One aspect, however, needs to be considered. Looking at the profile for the IICSA a number of institutions are specifically named (including the BBC who, incidentally, reported that Mansfield was ‘too old’ to take the chair). Left out of the list is any mention of the Royal Family or Household. Presumably they are lumped in with ‘other public and private institutions’. But the problem is that it is the monarchy which ultimately bestows honours and titles and is itself under suspicion for a list of unwholesome connections. To take but two instances there is Prince Charles previous close personal friendship with serial paedophile Jimmy Savile and Prince Andrew’s friendship with convicted US paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. As the Daily Mail reported, at the height of the Epstein affair (when even MPs were so disgusted that they stripped Andrew of his official Trade Envoy status) the Duke of York was being presented with a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order by his doting mother for services to the crown!
The Inquiry is Symptomatic of a Wider Malaise
In a broader context the problem of the independence (or rather otherwise) of the IISA reveals a problem with our establishment system. Firstly, all authority for the Government and Judiciary is ultimately derived from a single source, the Crown. As a further example, notice that the IICSA website has a Crown Copyright sign on it (which covers all material produced by the Crown!). In most modern constitutions, institutions derive their authority from different constituencies. It allows for separate public institutions to hold each other to account. Although I am in no way an admirer of the US Constitution it did, for example, allow for the removal of a corrupt President Nixon in 1974 under disclosure and threat of impeachment by institutions with separate authorities. But the interlocking nature of the British establishment is perceived as a major obstacle in holding it to account. It is something which the Government is either ignoring or relying on depending on your point of view but something which the appointment of Michael Mansfield QC would have gone a considerable way to assuaging.
New Leveller 
I’m a victim of institutional abuse police cover ups, and I agree. The inquiry has been given no independent Prosecutor’s Office to bring charges against police who have been proven at the UN investigation to have destroyed evidence, initially committed to protect the institution (“not in the national interest to prosecute” as I was tortured and sexually abused in a bizarre adoption to a psychotic wife of an army officer medical experiment) and later removals 2014 to now, of medical evidence by police, have been committed to hide their previous lying in writing and evidential destruction. Can you get justice ? No of course not. And Solicitors do not have the “expertise” for such a complex case, and all the “authorities” have “no remits” to investigate police corruption. Does the Inquiry help ?? Ha ha. It’s told me NOT to send my 5,000 documents of evidence that succeeded at the United Nations and the inquiry has just suggested they may exclude my cases. I sent the first Chronology, fine, but ten thousand chronologies prove nothing. Only EVIDENCE proves a case. The inquiry uses routes that may catch a few ‘headmaster’ types, but these routes can delete evidence against police corruption AND HAVE DONE SO IN MY CASES. Can’t name names here, but the evidence has proved it to the UN, so be careful what you allow the inquiry to pass to police if related to prior police corruption. Always insist to know what the police have received on their desks in your own police abuse corruption cases as you can be in for a surprise. Some officers are whistle-blowers and you may get further evidence of deletions this way. I did. But there the luck stops, as no UK authority does anything about your evidence, because they “have to explain we have no remit” rubbish. Sadly same is true of this iicsa inquiry. No remit to prosecute and no remit to award compensation. No wonder Justice Goddard has abandoned it. This protectorate is bad for ‘international judge-branding’ . Support ? ha ha “” we cannot guarantee ” taking my case evidence, and nothing more. Now I do not even get the auto-acknowledgement although I have sent them rather angry emails. This inquiry is a two-year ‘mirror’ of the situation (eleven million abused) with no remits to DO anything. If you do some simple mathematics you will see that to do anything serious for eleven million victims, this inquiry will need 51,000 years at their present snails pace, also limited to just 13 areas. It should have been set up with specialised small teams, with remit to assist getting evidence, and bring criminal charges, at least against corrupt officers / officials. Britain never learns anything. Leigh Mallory’s “Big Wings” were a failure during WW2, successfully replaced by small fighter squadrons that won the Battle of Britain. Same principle applies with this inquiry. Small, specialised and fast is need to combat the UK’s culture of abuse and police cover ups. I’ve said this to the inquiry and they ignore me, the question is why they are ignoring me. 5,000 documents of evidence against the police they are totally “dependent” on anything to do with their suggesting excluding and ignoring me ? I am going to start getting noisy about this two years of nothing since I registered, and now the suggestion I will be excluded. Damn them. Has anyone got ideas on how I can be noisy ?? I know White Flowers is expressing similar concerns, but I would like to contact a journalist and show them the reality of this inquiry.
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A further point I would like to add. (I was tortured as a child in the UK from birth, but now live in Spain, and will return if there is a UK court case) 1) Two years ago, the Home Secretary told the police / IPCC / PSDs “Change or we will change you” in an iconic statement that corruption in these services is rife and widespread, kept alive whistle-blower officers have told me, through in-force bullying. Basically, if you want to remain an officer, shut your mouth. I have force newspapers saying the same, that officers are under pressure to not say anything about evidential destruction. And wholesale lying. Well, the “no stone unturned” Inquiry, apart from telling me NOT TO SEND MY EVIDENCE SUCCESSFULLY TESTED AT THE UN INVESTIGATION INTO UK ABUSE CORRUPTION, has so far ignored the problem altogether. Promises, but nothing actual. What the inquiry, so-called, should have done two years ago is start with police corruption, done to protect the UK’s institutions that has allowed millions of victims to be institutionally, and non-institutionally, abused. Think about it. Do you scratch the surface, or do you stop the cause of abuse ? Injecting real deterrent (criminal prosecutions of corrupt police that destroy evidence to protect the institutions) would finally bring relief to vulnerable victims being abused now. The inquiry has done nothing about corruption two years on, because they (both the inquiry and police lead) use the police , who in corruption cases insist on SAME-FORCE, SELF-INVESTIGATION INTO THEIR OWN EVIDENCE DESTRUCTION. Can you guess what the result of this insanity is ? My documentary evidence is FULL of the results: Dis-applications, time-outs, lying AND DIGITAL DELETIONS OF EVIDENCE AGAINST POLICE. I would love to name names, but I know this media cannot allow me to do this. Mind-set change due. When a state, tortures children in their medical experiments with adoptees sold to mental patient psychotics, that state and its cover up institutions and mechanisms, do not commit “complaints against institutions / police”. No, actually the state commits “Crimes against Humanity” and “Denial of the Truth”. The IICSA inquiry has failed so far to recognise this Status in international (ICC) Article law despite me inviting the inquiry to do so. Their failure to do so, when they know that my (and others) cases will be Submitted to The International Criminal Court Pre-Trial stages in October, shows what this Inquiry really is. Crown copyright, not “independent” of the government ? Very true. Using corrupt police routes ? You bet. But this evidence will also be presented to the Judges I.C.C. to “execute the Findings of the UN” because the Inquiry by refusing my 5,000 documents of EVIDENCE cannot execute the findings of the UN, because it does not want to, because the UK does not want such prosecutions to go ahead by Indictments. But these prosecutions of named officers, who abuse the already abused, are going ahead whether the UK wants it or not. Cover ups kill victims by police abandonment, and Survivor suicides at no justice. Time for change. There is no working UK corruption accountability in the UK due to the vicious cycle “I’m sorry, but we have to explain we have no remit to intervene. You should contact the Chief Constable of the force….” And the Chief Constable never replies.. Home Office part funds the police, can’t intervene, and the police pay the one being scrapped and replaced in the Autumn for corruption that replaced the P:: in 2004, and so on and much more. It is the mentality that needs to change. A wishy washy inquiry with no remits , desperately slow, and loses data, (and Chair-people) and “depends” on corrupt police routes that delete digital file evidence against their forces, is frankly almost useless. All the cases like mine, have their routes in Nazi-copied medical experiments, and stolen baby cases. These and their cover ups, are CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY. Inquiry take note and change, or perhaps the International Criminal Court in the coming months will say “Change or we will change you” to copy-quote the HS. !! I am looking forward to the cases, because final accountability in Universal Justice also means proper final deterrent against those who like to destroy evidence to protect child abusers in institutions.
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Do please, even if you cannot publish this comment, please publish my first two. We are a group of victims with European Inspectorate guidance for investigation and United Nations connections. Our Universal Justice mission is to bring to I.C.C. Justice, police officers in the UK where evidence, test-proven proves police to have destroyed (e.g. medical) evidence, refused to talk to witnesses, rejected witness written testimony, or police re-written witness testimony, lied in writing, police re-written victim statements removing sex abuse allegations to hide institutional abuse, (all these examples we have and are successfully Tribunal proven) etc. In October, we intend to launch our website. If you are a victim / Survivor of childhood abuse in the UK, that the police have either refused to investigate, or told you that although you can prove it, “child torture is unfortunately not a crime in the UK” later to tell you it “is not in the national interest to prosecute as to do so would expose the (institution)” then we are for you. IT WILL COST YOU NOTHING, UNLESS YOU DO NOT TRUST DIGITAL AND PREFER TO COMMUNICATE BY POST. The most you pay is a postage stamp. Our Inspectors will guide you how to obtain evidence, how to respond to silence, what to ask and when. The guiding light behind questions is Articles I.C.C. Once you have obtained enough evidence we tell you how to apply the Articles, we will show you Submission models to guide you. If you are very depressed, we will do it for you, but only if you cannot work with the legal models, or if you have a reading disability. Please only ask us to do it for you, if really stuck because we are going to be stretched. We will give you legal guidance fact sheets showing Article interpretation and contravention. You can then submit your evidence yourself, (50 documents per case per submission is the limit for the first stage, but you may need to submit more than one Submission for the Pre Trial stage. Our Inspectors and Lawyers can guide you on relevance-selection if necessary). The important thing for all eleven million victims in the UK is to force accountability via international law, the accountability of which is missing in the UK, The Prosecuting Submissions Officer is a European Government Lawyer. Take heart, if you are a Survivor of abuse, and in despair of no justice in the UK, we will help you for no cost. I am now a qualified psychologist (not unusual for an abuse torture victim Survivor) and I can help you understand how group / individual psychotherapy in a UK NHS hospital local to where you are living, works, and could work for you to deal with your rightful anger keeping the anger verbal, and learning from it. If you are not already in trauma psychotherapy, do please consider this, and having local support while taking legal action, is also good, but group, properly run, gives the ‘you’ back to you. Now how to find us in October. I’m not sure how much I am permitted to put here, but if you use a search engine for Brit…Hol..Tort..Child…Trials Centre, you should be able to find us. We are building site security throughout September, so should be in the public domain no later than mid-october. I emphasise there is no cost to you. We do NOT prosecute individual child abusers, because this is not what the I.C.C. does. The I.C.C. prosecutes by indictment, crimes against humanity / the Child, which includes official cover ups as “Denial of the Truth” crimes. So, we will Submit cases against officials and police where there is sufficient evidence to prove official cover ups, and we help you to get that evidence, related to Article contraventions, where is it obvious you have been cheated. Please note we are ‘professional’ volunteers, doing this work in our spare time, so use us when you feel you have been cheated out of justice in the UK and you have suffered something like the examples I have given above, which are real examples.
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