Child sexual abuse inquiry 'could last until 2020'

The sexual abuse of children has left "scars" on victims and society, the chair of an inquiry into historical abuse in England and Wales has said.

Justice Lowell Goddard was speaking as she opened the independent inquiry, which she said could last until 2020.
It will examine how public bodies handled their duty of care to protect children from abuse.
Justice Goddard said there were suggestions that one child out of every 20 in the UK had been sexually abused.
She said many who are sexually abused as a child do not tell adults - and that if they do "their reports may go unheeded".
There may also have been systematic under-recording and mis-recording of child sex abuse by the police and other agencies, she added, meaning that "the true picture may be even worse than the current figures indicate".
Speaking about the scale of the problem, she said: "The need for accurate recording is one of the issues that the inquiry will have to confront."
The inquiry was first announced by Home Secretary Theresa May in July 2014.
It followed claims of a high-level cover-up of historical child sex abuse involving public figures, including politicians.

'Unique opportunity'

The New Zealand High Court judge, who led an inquiry into police handling of child abuse cases in her own country, was the third person named to chair the inquiry - her two predecessors resigned over concerns about their links with the establishment.
In her opening remarks, she said the task ahead was daunting, but that it could expose past failures of institutions to defend children.
Justice Goddard said the sexual abuse of children "has left permanent scars not only on successive generations, has left permanent scars not only on victims themselves, but on society as a whole".
But she added: "This inquiry provides a unique opportunity to expose past failures of institutions to protect children, to confront those responsible, to uncover systemic failures... and to make recommendations that will help prevent the sexual abuse and exploitation of children in the future."
Justice Goddard also said it was important to emphasise that this was the largest and most ambitious public inquiry ever established in England and Wales.
Despite the size of the investigation, she was "determined to ensure that it does not become bogged down in the delays that have bedevilled some other public inquiries in this jurisdiction".