“On Thursday the government, despite advice to do differently, gave Kids Company £3m”.
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Once feted by celebrities such as rock group Coldplay, who donated £8m, Harry Potter author JK Rowling, entrepreneur Richard Branson, the charity this week closed its doors amid accusations that its trustees failed to heed warnings about the puacity of its finances.
Ms Batmanghelidj said there was a campaign to “maliciously discredit” and silence her linked to the ongoing investigation by police into claims that politicians, senior detectives and VIPs have protected high-profile paedophiles.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, a former charity employee claimed girls aged 16 to 18 were pressured into sex by men in their 20s.
But she accepted it was “irresponsible” not to have reserves at the charity to make up for any shortfall in donations.
“We have been audited by the government every year since Tony Blair and the Labour government started to give us money”.
The allegations of sexual abuse were blamed by the charity for the loss of a donation which could have helped secure its future and Ms Batmanghelidjh said it had been “very irresponsible” to release the information.
“Sadly that didn’t happen, not least because of the allegations that were made and private donors withdrawing their money but I think the Government was right to say let’s have one last go trying to keep this charity going, given the work it’s done for so many young people”.
But following the BBC and Buzzfeed’s reports on Batmanghelidjh spending £800,000 (.2 million) of the £3 million government grant on salaries, the funding was pulled.
Or, according to Batmanghelidjh’s account on Newsnight: ‘We had a fantastic deal on the table, with the Government getting money in, with the philanthropists putting money in…
“Consequently what happened is a charity that is responsible for the welfare and protection of children overnight turned into a charity that was sexually exploiting children, on the back of absolute rumours”. The perpetrator is now serving a prison sentence for murder. Our policy is if staff wish to press charges they can do that.
She also denied allegations that skunk – the strong form of marijuana – was openly smoked by staff and clients at the Urban Academy.
Kids Company, which provided educational support to deprived young people in London, Liverpool and Bristol, was forced to close down this week.
Another ex-member of staff told the programme that the charity had been paying contractors to provide “supervision” or counselling for members of staff who worked closely with children, rather than there being any kind of “formal training programme”, and that these contractors would often be paid four to five months late while the charity waited for grants to materialise.
She said: “Kids Company is helping me and my children”.
The BBC has quoted a source saying that Mr Cameron had been pushing for Kids Company to receive funding because he viewed it as a “good news story”.
They marched from the charity’s offices in Camberwell chanting, blowing whistles, waving banners and banging drums to raise awareness of the vulnerable people the organisation supported.
Ms Batmanghelidjh also said she felt she was under attack because she was not a typical executive. “Am I allowed to say that?”
“People assume, because I’m a woman and I work with children, that then I don’t understand figures and I can’t organise systems”.
He began the week looking forward to a break in Tuscany and ended it barely containing his emotions as he jabbed a finger at the Channel 4 presenter Matt Frei and refused to resign his position at the BBC.
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Protestor Tom Ngoye said: “We didn’t even get a chance for our voice to be heard”.
