A child abuse victim who founded Britian’s leading charity for survivors has resigned from a government inquriy after it emerged that he had a sexual encounter with a victim in a restaurant toilet.

Peter Saunders, 61, who founded the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), was arrested following the encounter which took place in February 2008.

He was not charged with any offence but said that he was “deeply sorry” about the incident and that he would carry the shame for the rest of his life.

As a result, he was forced to resign from his post on the Victims and Survivors Panel of the Independent Inquiry into Childhood Sexual Abuse (IICSA), the public investigation into sys­temic sexual abuse in schools, churches and other institutions.

A spokesman for IICSA said he had failed to declare the incident in 2015 when he joined in 2015,: “The inquiry holds our consultative panel members to the same high standards we expect of our staff. Peter Saunders offered his resignation and we have accepted it with immediate effect.”