Chair Of Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry Resigns Amid Allegations Of Government Interference

The resignation of Susan O'Brien QC as the chair of Scotland's national child abuse inquiry is the second resignation to hit the investigation in a week, and poses huge questions about how quickly it will be able to proceed.

At the end of June, Professor Michael Lamb resigned from the panel, stating that the inquiry was "doomed" due to government interference. Those accusations have been echoed in the strongly worded resignation letter sent by Ms O'Brien to the Scottish Government.

Writing to Scotland's deputy first minister, John Swinney, she said that "my position as the independent Chair of this Inquiry has been actively undermined by some Scottish Government officials for months."

This follows a complaint from a child abuse expert, Dr Claire Fyvie. Stating that her efforts to deliver a professional service of support were significantly compromised, Dr Fyvie made reference to comments made by Ms O'Brien towards the end of a training session. Ms O'Brien had referred to comments from a survivor of child abuse who "described sexual abuse at boarding school as the best thing that had ever happened" to them. Dr Fyvie also questioned comments made by Ms O'Brien regarding evidence at the trial of a teacher accused of sexual offences, suggesting he "had simply had a hole in his trousers."

Ms O'Brien accepts the comments were made, but in relation to the first accusation, states that she was simply accurately reporting, "without endorsing", what a survivor had told her. With regard to the prosecution, there had been "a misunderstanding of what I knew about the case at the time, and my purpose in referring to it when discussing the...