Did Lovell Goddard have a clue?
A New Zealand judge, Dame Lowell Goddard, has resigned under a cloud from the UK’s child abuse inquiry. There are suggestions that the judge wasn’t up to the task, or as they say in NZ “couldn’t do the hard yards.”
Professor Alexis Jay will now lead the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. Jay is a British social worker and academic. A visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde and the independent chair of the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland. Her devastating Rotherham report blew open the national debate on child sex abuse.
Goddard quit 24 hours after being criticised in reports for taking three months’ holiday since being appointed in April 2015 to a post that came with a £482,000 per annum salary package. In the year since the inquiry was set up no evidence has been taken, and an unprecedented project known as the Truth project, to catalogue thousands of individual testimonies of abuse, had only just begun.
“Window Dressing” and “Sidelining Survivors”
“She has been accused of sidelining survivors in the investigation. Their testimonies will have no direct legal consequences and will only be used as “ballast” to the final report, says Phil Frampton chair of the Care Leavers’ Association. “[It’s] a form of window dressing that may leave many survivors not only bound to secrecy about their testimony but also deeply distressed.” source
Goddard vowed that no individual or institution however powerful would be able to obstruct her investigations – a standard she either didn’t or couldn’t apply to herself, letting down thousands of abuse victims in the process…
Lawyers for nine men said to have been repeatedly sexually abused at school have accused Justice Lowell Goddard of treating their clients with contempt and costing them money by “walking off” from the troubled child abuse inquiry.
The men who attended Stanhope Castle approved school in Co Durham travelled to the high court in London, days before the judge from New Zealand resigned, to offer evidence as to why they should take part in the independent inquiry into child sex abuse…
Their lawyer, David Enright of Howe & Co solicitors, has written to Keith Vaz, chair of the Commons home affairs select committee, to complain about the treatment of his clients by the judge, who was on an annual pay package of £500,000. In a letter obtained by this newspaper, Enright says: “My clients were shocked that, subsequently and just days after they had made their renewed application for core participant status to Justice Goddard, she resigned with immediate effect.
“At no time, in the interim, did she consider it appropriate to determine my clients’ applications, which had been made before her and after a number of my clients had travelled to London to be present in the high court …My clients rightly consider it entirely unacceptable for a senior judge to, seemingly, simply walk off the job (or be asked to leave her job) before determining their applications for core participant status.” It is understood that Vaz, who has called on Goddard to explain her resignation to his select committee, will question the judge over her treatment of the men.
Goddard has not yet given full reasons for her resignation, but she has said that conducting such an inquiry was “not an easy task”.
It has been suggested that she was effectively pushed out over doubts over her knowledge of UK law. It was also reported that Goddard had spent more than 70 days working abroad or on holiday during her time in charge of the inquiry.
An inquiry spokesman said that the 67-year-old judge, who was appointed in April 2015, had spent 44 days in New Zealand and Australia on inquiry business and was entitled to 30 days’ annual leave…”
Goddard has come in for heaps of criticsm before. Here’s some of it:
As a High Court Judge, Ms Goddard’s human and fair trial rights record has been sporadic and sometimes appalling. In Howse v R New Zealand [2005] UKPC 31, the United Kingdom Privy Council leveled unprecedented and scathing criticism at Goddard, finding “It is impossible to imagine a clearer example of a trial that has gone off the rails” resulting in “an unfair trial”. The perennially-restrained Law Lords added, “We could use more robust language to describe it but, with difficulty restrain ourselves from doing so.” A November 2007 feature article on Goddard in Police News listed Goddard’s “minimum non-parole of 28 years” sentence of Howse as one of her career highlights….
Justice Goddard scored dead last in the 2014 Survey of New Zealand judges, with many lawyers dismissing her competency and hypocritical stances in support of human rights.” source
See also:
Some voiced their concerns about Lowell long before she left her post, saying that Goddard was a Kiwi government “cover-up merchant”:
The Daily Mail had earlier published information that Goddard was ‘sacked’, saying she had lost confidence of senior staff and members of the inquiry panel and didn’t appear to understand British law. It would appear that Goddard’s biggest failing may have been to try to apply NZ’s way of ‘doing law’ to the more robust and mature British legal system. Evidently, a lack of preparation and inability to do the ‘hard yards’ became evident:
Dame Lowell Goddard, the New Zealand judge who resigned on Thursday as chair of the £100 million Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), did not leave her post voluntarily but was effectively fired, The Mail on Sunday has learned…[She] had already lost the confidence of senior staff and members of the inquiry panel, according to two well-placed legal sources.
After she gave a stumbling performance at a preliminary hearing on the case of former Labour politician Greville Janner, when she appeared not to understand her own legal powers, this was picked up by Mrs May’s successor as Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, and her advisers…
Legal sources say there was widespread dismay among IICSA’s staff and advisers that Dame Lowell seemed unable to get to grips with the colossal amount of material the inquiry was generating, which left her ‘overwhelmed and drowning’, while handicapped by her ‘blurry’ knowledge of English law.
At the preliminary Janner hearing, she seemed to struggle with the very law under which IICSA was established, the Inquiries Act 2005, and unsure whether she could issue orders restricting media reporting. It was also noted that she appeared unfamiliar with the role of a judge during a hearing, failing to invite opposing arguments in the normal way.
‘There were a lot of bewildered barristers in court that day,’ one source said. She added: ‘This has been building up for months. It wasn’t what Dame Lowell wanted, but what the world saw in court has been evident behind the scenes for a long time. In the end, her resignation became inevitable.’ more here
Goddard has been chair of New Zealand’s Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) and sat on the UN subcommittee on the prevention of torture.
In February last year…
Ben Emmerson QC, who is a UN rapporteur on counter-terrorism and counsel to the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, praised the selection. He said: “The home secretary is extremely fortunate to have secured the services of Justice Lowell Goddard, one of the most respected and experienced judges in the Commonwealth, to act as chair of the new statutory inquiry that was announced in the House of Commons this afternoon.
“Justice Goddard has all the key qualities necessary to lead the inquiry’s work – absolute independence from the executive, a proven track record of holding state and non-state institutions to account and the forensic skills necessary to digest and analyse vast quantities of evidence. source
Also see: Ben Emmerson QC: The human rights lawyer who was expected to lead child abuse inquiry is accused of ‘bullying’ and ‘intimidation’ of child sex abuse inquiry panel member and abuse victim Sharon Evans
E2NZ.org 
Funny how the Kiwi big talk bullshit seems to get somewhat exposed when the spin Drs are no longer around to cover ones arse,anyway I’m sure she had a nice holiday and hopefully she’ll walk into a nice cushy tax payer funded job when she returns to N.Z
I’m amazed that (1) Goddard survived the selection process, if as claimed, she didn’t have the appropriate qualifications and (2) why the British would risk employing a judge from a different jurisdiction in the first place.
As members of the UK commission will discover, these inquiries are exceedingly complex and multi-layered. We have one in Australia which will take years to reach a conclusion and it will cost millions of dollars.
What a complete debacle for the British and NZ judiciaries.
I am extremely disappointed that the inquiry into child sex abuse is unlikely to accomplish its stated objectives. It appears that this is simply a pot of money for lawyers to milk.
However, I take some solace knowing that the incompetence and bias of useless Kiwi judges has received exposure in the UK. New Zealand is extremely adept at concealing its incestuous corruption from the rest of the world. I hope that Goddard’s abrupt resignation/dismissal leads to more exposure about the systematic failings of the New Zealand police and courts.
Very well put @SafeFromNewZealand. Dame Goddard showed contempt for victims of child sex abuse – this is exactly what her colleagues in the NZ judiciary have a history of doing. Sadly, our family know this from experience – with Judge Ryan and Judge Clarkson. Corruption in the judiciary must surely be the most serious type of corruption – it undermines a central pillar of society. The world needs to find out about the conduct of the NZ court, the complete disregard for the rule of law in child sex cases. Our family were illegally gagged in NZ’s courts in order to cover up sex crimes committed by a sex gang against our under age daughter.
Yay….. SafeFromNewZealand stay with us on this site, we need you!!!! I am here slumped in the midst of this fetid pool of unsurpassed and unabated mediocrity, and irrationality, called New Zealand. It is like living in a permanently soiled diaper. Would you wipe the collective arse of the nation? It is so very dirty.
I would suggest all you civilized kiwi’s out there to come to western civilization ! Why put yourself through all that horror and misery for the rest of your life ?! there are many way’s to do so. Contact me if you need any advice or information about immigrating there. I will be happy to help you out and get you safe to the other side ! start up your immigration progress when you are in the desired destination. many websites make immigration so much easier and more affordable so anyone could afford it. Nobody deserves a life like this please go for an better life you deserve it. Live longer and happier in an more comfortable and good country where her citizens are treated with respect and dignity !
@Western Chick I think that you are Canadian. If so, could you leave an e-mail address where I can reach you? I have a friend who would like to move to Canada. Thanks for your help.
Well, it might have something to do with the idea that she comes from a culture of “doers” and not “thinkers”, remember that people who think things through and are rational cop plenty of abuse.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3715855/I-m-confused-explain-local-laws.html
‘I’m confused… someone explain the local laws’: New Zealand judge set to earn £5m heading UK’s historical child abuse inquiry shocks barristers by admitting English legislation confuses her
Official inquiry into child sex abuse is the largest in British legal history
It has cost taxpayers millions of pounds and could run for up to 10 years
The probe is still receiving up to 100 fresh allegations of abuse every week
Chairwoman Dame Justice Goddard admitted she was ‘unsure of local law’
By ANTHONY JOSEPH FOR MAILONLINE and REBECCA CAMBER, CRIME CORRESPONDENT FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 12:22 GMT, 30 July 2016 | UPDATED: 19:48 GMT, 30 July 2016
Just LOL. Maybe she gained her qualifications through a correspondence course? After all, we are frequently told that “the world is your teacher” and “education doesn’t always happen at school” 🙂
When Owen Glenn financed an inquiry into New Zealand’s own child abuse problems I recall how badly he was treated for daring to draw attention to the problem. What happened to that final report, gathering dust somewhere?
It is interesting that the legal journo who has gone to prison for exposing the truth of this NZ judge and other judges of her ilk; the legal journo whose postings this same judge had to specifically answer to the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee upon her appointment in Feb 2015, the same allegations which were never addressed by her, and the legal journo whose other postings about Goddard’s character and work ethic are no longer in dispute, does not get a mention, either by reference to the source which has been now proven impeccable in its accuracy or by his name.
My name is Vince Siemer and my website quoted in this article as relevant is kiwisfirst.co.nz
Speaking of Owen Glen, he had this to say about Tall Poppy Syndrome:
what an disgrace ! what kind of *((( are living here ? those vampires in the top are the most self centered egocentric creatures I ever heard of walking on the face of the earth. Therefor they must change this country if they see most people are fleeing this bloodsucking country..
The then Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May) who is now UK Prime Minister after two failed inquiries received more than 150 nominations from survivors, their representatives, MPs and members of the public.
I have read The Home Office also contacted Commonwealth countries, via the Foreign Office, to identify any suitable candidates. Each and every name was assessed against a set of criteria, incorporating the views of survivors on the most important factors. The criteria included: the appropriate skills to carry out this complex task; experience of the subject matter; and the absence of any direct links to any individual about whom people might have concerns, or any institution or organisation that might fall under the scope of the inquiry. A copy of the criteria was be placed in the House Library and published in full on the
gov.uk website.
Following an initial sift, due diligence checks were carried out on all the remaining names, which included academics, social workers, people from the charitable sector and a significant number of judges and members of the legal profession. The list was narrowed down to a shortlist of those who matched the set of criteria and were most suited to taking on the undoubtedly challenging role. Mrs May then took the views of a small group of survivors, all members of larger groups, who represent more than 100,000 individual survivors.
Based on the clear feedback from survivors, and the assessment of the nominations against the agreed criteria, Mrs May informed the House that she planned to appoint Justice Lowell Goddard as the new chairman of the independent panel inquiry into child sexual abuse.
At the pre-appointment hearing, Justice Goddard had informed the Committee that it was the British High Commission in Wellington that had made the approach and she had made a decision after consultation.
It is irrelevant what that offshore nasty piece of crap Lauda F off espouses.
I concur with the UK Committe chairman Vaz that Justice Goddard must give her reasons for her sudden resignation.
Reading a lot of related articles going back a number of years this inquiry is indeed fraught with difficulties although some who are alleged to have committed atrocious child abuse whom are now deceased and cannot defend themselves I believe those living both survivors and their alleged perpetrators still and must participate in this inquiry.
Siena, is what is published at http://www.fairhearing.info/judges/lowell-goddard/ relevant? The hard evidence of Goddard’s judicial misconduct in NZ was before the UK parliament, but was simply ignored, just as it is being ignored by NZ authorities. What kind of “due diligence” are you talking about?