The Anglican and Catholic churches and “certain people of public prominence associated with Westminster” will be looked under the huge inquiry triggered by the Jimmy Savile scandal.
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The judge said abuse in the Catholic church had been “a matter of national and global concern for many years”, adding that she expected the inquiry to be broadened to other faith communities.
“The scale of child sexual abuse in this country requires urgent and careful attention”.
New Zealand High Court judge Lowell Goddard said the inquiry would focus on allegations of child sexual abuse involving current or former MPs, senior civil servants, government advisers and members of the intelligence and security agencies.
Victims will detail their horrific abuse as the inquiry bids to uncover the truth.
Cambridge House boys’ home and Knowl View, in Rochdale, will be investigated, including claims relating to the late Cyril Smith, by Justice Lowell Goddard as part of the wide ranging inquiry into allegations of child sexual abuse and subsequent cover ups.
The task of running 12 investigations in parallel was ambitious, Justice Goddard said, and represented “an organisational challenge that is unprecedented in a public inquiry in the UK”.
Various institutions have been accused of failing to deal with abuse allegations and, in some cases, of actively covering them up at the behest of powerful establishment figures including lawmakers, spies and police officers. Operation Xeres is investigating similar allegations in north Nottinghamshire and was launched in 2014. We will not shy away from these allegations of historical abuse. The force says the inquiry is the biggest of its type the force has ever undertaken.
Goddard will take in the case of jailed Anglican bishop Peter Ball, who abused 18 young men over 20 years, to see whether anyone tried to save him from justice. The royal family has not been specifically identified as an institution being examined but it is understood it has not been excluded from potentially falling under the scope of the inquiry.
Chief constable Chris Eyre added: “I am confident that the inquiry will allow them a voice without compromising the ongoing and extremely complex criminal investigations and criminal justice proceedings”.
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But she admitted some investigations will take years with the inquiry set to run until 2020.
