Charity did not tell chief’s new employer of sexual misconduct probe, MPs told

By David Wilcock22nd May 2018News EnglandCharities, News England, Sexual Abuse

Save the Children failed to inform Unicef that its former chief executive had been investigated over alleged sexual misconduct before moving to the UN agency, the charity’s former chairman has told MPs.

Sir Alan Parker said Unicef was not told about the investigation into Justin Forsyth (pictured), conducted by an independent law firm, because it was not a “formal disciplinary process”.

Sir Alan, who stepped down from StC earlier this year after the aid sector sex abuse scandal broke, also said he and other directors vetoed a £20,000 bonus awarded to Mr Forsyth while the investigation was under way.

Mr Forsyth quit his role as deputy executive director of Unicef in April after allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards female members of staff emerged during his time at Save the Children, where he was chief executive between 2010 and 2016.

Sir Alan told MPs in the International Development Committee that the charity had spoken with a third-party headhunter about Mr Forsyth but that it was StC policy “not to mention things if they have not been the subject of formal disciplinary process”.

He added: “It wasn’t a lucid formal process. It was a process but it didn’t formally trigger a formal disciplinary process which would have been marked, which would have been kept.”

Asked whether it should have been flagged up, he added: “When I look back, there are a number of things we would have done differently.

“I think we would have done it in a way that would have settled it at each time more appropriately and I think very clearly there were quite specific HR failings in this, which I have to take on board as I was chairman at the time.”

A leaked 2015 report from the charity suggested that Sir Alan’s “very close” relationship with Mr Forsyth may have affected how he responded to complaints.

At Tuesday’s hearings he rejected a claim by Conservative Pauline Latham that a formal written warning was not sent to Mr Forsyth “because he was a friend of yours”, insisting the letter should have been in his file.

Sir Alan also revealed that Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered MP Jo Cox, would have been suspended by the charity if he had not resigned.

Mr Cox admitted earlier this year that he made “mistakes” and behaved in a way that caused some women hurt and offence when he was working at the charity.

Sir Alan said: “Of course Mr Cox at the time of his resignation, was still fully denying everything, and in his resignation letter was saying very clearly he felt this was unfair, he would not get proper justice, he was very very robust on this, and literally just left.

“But from the moment we received the report on Brendan Cox – he was away at the time – we then moved to suspend him. He never returned to the building once during that process.”