Former chair of child abuse inquiry condemned for refusing to answer MPs’ questions even via videolink from New Zealand

Dame Lowell Goddard, the former chair of the independent inquiry into child sex abuse, has been branded “a disgrace” for refusing to answer questions from MPs about her resignation.

Yvette Cooper, the chair of the Commons home affairs select committee, said the New Zealand former high court judge’s refusal to give evidence even by videolink was “an astonishing response” from a paid public servant.

MPs are now urgently considering whether they can compel Goddard to give evidence to the committee should she set foot in Britain again.

Goddard’s refusal to answer any further questions from MPs either by returning to London or by videolink from New Zealand was made clear in a letter she sent to Cooper on Monday in which she claimed that doing so would pose “an unacceptable risk” that “malicious defamatory attacks in some UK media could be repeated”.

Goddard said the letter would be her final act relating to her former position as chair of the inquiry, and she would no longer be responding to requests for interviews or comments.

Goddard received £360,000 a year plus allowances and flights home during the 18 months she served as the inquiry chair and secured an £80,000 payoff after her resignation on 4 August. She was the third chair to resign since the child sex abuse inquiry was set up in July 2014.

Cooper condemned her “disgraceful response”. She said: “Dame Goddard has been paid significant amounts of public money to do an extremely important job which she suddenly resigned from, leaving a series of questions about what has been happening over the last 18 months and why the inquiry got into difficulties.

“Yet rather than give oral evidence to answer these questions she is relying on the fact that she is out of the UK to avoid the requirement to give evidence to parliament. This is an astonishing response from a paid public servant who should know how important transparency is in an inquiry as sensitive and crucial as this one.

“Child abuse survivors have been let down by the extremely rocky start to this inquiry and we do need answers as to why it went wrong in order to be confident it is back on track now.”

In her letter to the home affairs committee, Goddard accused the government of failing to defend her when she was accused of racism. A report in the Times alleged Goddard had a troubling record of making racist and derogatory remarks during her time as head of the inquiry, and of acting abusively towards junior staff members.

“I am disappointed that there has been no government defence of me in England, despite the fact that information refuting some of the more serious allegations has been held by the Home Office and your committee since the time of my initial recruitment,” she wrote in the letter released by her husband on Tuesday.

She declined to provide oral evidence to the committee and said her focus on providing “formal, comprehensive reports” to the Home Office was a means of maintaining her “judicial independence”.

“As a high court judge in New Zealand for many years before I resigned to take up the chair of the IICSA [independent inquiry into child sexual abuse], I have a duty to maintain judicial independence. That is why I have volunteered detailed written reports [in preference to oral communication] so that no dispute on powers or damage to IICSA’s independence could arise. I am not aware of any matter which remains unanswered,” she wrote.

• The headline on this article was amended on 8 November to correctly reflect Yvette Cooper’s remarks.