Child abuse inquiry: Survivors want new panel and extra powers

Dozens of child abuse survivors have urged the government to scrap an inquiry into historical abuse and replace it with a more powerful body.

The call comes after a leaked letter from Theresa May told inquiry members their panel might be disbanded.

Peter Saunders, from National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said the move would be supported by the majority of survivors.

Labour's Simon Danczuk said the inquiry so far had been an "utter mess".

Mr Danczuk, who exposed child sex abuse allegations against former Liberal MP Cyril Smith, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that survivors would be "dismayed" by the progress of the inquiry - which was set up in July and has started work, but has no chairman.

'Very good people'

He later told BBC Radio 5 live: "It is verging on a disgrace in terms of how government, how Theresa May, and how Home Office officials have organised or failed to organise this particular enquiry."

Mr Saunders said he had not met any survivors who had any confidence in the process and the panel, "as it is currently constituted".

"There are some very good people on that panel as it stands at the moment, but there are one or two characters who sadly have an association with the past that would make them inappropriate," he said.

He added that if the panel was disbanded it would not "take us back to square one", and argued that getting the inquiry set up correctly would win the support of survivors.

But former children's minister and Tory MP Tim Loughton told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that all the survivors he had met wanted to get the inquiry going, and he did not accept that disbanding the panel was the will of the majority.

Peter Saunders: "Theresa May has my and many other people's backing"

In the letter to Home Secretary Theresa May from survivors, survivors' groups and associated professionals, they call for a new inquiry with the power to "compel witnesses to give evidence under oath".

It is "essential" the inquiry has these legal powers to "prevent evidence being withheld or tampered with", they say.

The letter also says they would welcome a "dedicated police team to take evidence alongside the inquiry and investigate and prosecute offenders".

They say this would "increase confidence", adding it is "essential" those conducting the inquiry "are free from strong links to prominent establishment figures or any other potential conflict of interest".

The letter also calls for the terms of reference of the inquiry to be extended to include allegations of historical abuse dating back as far as 1945, rather than 1970 as is presently the case.

One of the people who signed the letter was abuse survivor and campaigner Ian McFayden. He said the government only had "one chance" to get an inquiry like this right, and it needed to have teeth.

Lib Dem MP Tessa Munt, who has revealed that she suffered from child abuse herself, also agreed the inquiry needed greater powers, and people should be compelled to give evidence under oath.

Mrs May's first two choices to be the inquiry's chairperson both stood down amid claims they had close links with establishment figures.

The inquiry, sparked by claims of paedophiles operating in Westminster in the 1980s, will investigate whether "public bodies and other non-state institutions have taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse in England and Wales".