The founder of a charity for survivors of child sexual abuse has resigned from a government inquiry after failing to disclose allegations surrounding a sexual encounter.
Peter Saunders, 61, who founded the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), resigned from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse after the media reported an incident in February 2008 which led to him being questioned by police.
A spokesperson for IICSA said: "The Victims and Survivors Consultative Panel were chosen by IICSA in 2015 after a fair and open competition, at the end of which all successful candidates were expected to complete a declaration around conflicts of interest. Peter Saunders did not disclose to the inquiry the events that happened in 2008.
"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."
The Mail on Sunday reported that Saunders joined a woman and her friend for lunch at a restaurant to discuss the possibility of her working with the charity. It said they drank three bottles of wine between them, which was paid for using the charity’s credit card. Saunders and the woman then went upstairs to the bathroom, where a “sex act” took place.
According to the newspaper, the woman then reported the incident to the police, who questioned Saunders. The Crown Prosecution Service did not proceed with the case.
Saunders told the Mail on Sunday: “The incident was not as [the woman] alleged. It was a totally consensual, albeit drunken encounter, the shame of which I will live with for the rest of my life.”
He founded NAPAC in 1997. He stepped down as chief executive in April 2015 and was replaced by Gabrielle Shaw.
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