‘Major errors’ in Kids Company book, says BBC editor

18 Oct 2017 News

Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder, Kids Company

A BBC journalist has warned that there are at least “two major errors” in Camila Batmanghelidjh’s tell-all book about the collapse of Kids Company. 

The founder and former chief executive of Kids Company, Camila Batmanghelidjh, published, Kids – Child protection in Britain: The Truth, written with Tim Rayment, yesterday. 

Chris Cook, policy editor for the BBC’s Newsnight programme, was one journalists to have been investigating Kids Company at the time of its collapse and reported the allegations that the charity had not dealt with concerns about sexual abuse appropriately. 

In the book Batmanghelidjh claims that Newsnight “sat on” the allegation and that it was part of a wider conspiracy to bring down the charity. 

But in a blog on the BBC website, Cook claims that this was not the case and that there are a number of major errors in the book.

He said: “Some of the inaccuracies in her account are fairly well worn. Lots have been dissected fairly thoroughly, including in a select committee. Some, though, are new. These include two major errors, which relate to Newsnight and child protection, which are worth addressing immediately.”

He said that he reported concerns promptly because to do otherwise would be “immoral” and would also have “been a serious breach of the BBC's rules. The corporation has learned from past child protection failures. Its policy is that we should ‘not delay in taking whatever action is necessary to safeguard the child’ - and it is a ‘disciplinary matter’ not to do so. Were she right, I would - rightly - be in serious trouble. But she isn't.”

Cook also criticised how Batmanghelidjh had framed the investigation in the book. 

He said that “Batmanghelidjh implies that the investigation was a minor event” which he contests because “as news of the investigation spread more people came forward” and only a small number of cases like this result in prosecutions. 

Meanwhile Batmanghelidjh has appeared on various media outlets including ITV’s This Morning and LBC to promote the book. 

She has continued to repeat claims that the charity was brought down by a conspiracy and suggested that it actually had £3m available in its reserves.  

This morning she told BBC Radio 5 Live that the government had been planning to fund Kids Company in a similar way to how it funded Childline, until the “malicious” campaign against the charity. 


  
 

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