Child abuse charity boss resigns from government inquiry after sexual encounter with woman in toilet

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.”

The Mail on Sundayreported that Mr Saunders had a sexual encounter with the woman - who was abused when she was a child and who cannot be named for legal reasons - following an alcohol-fuelled lunch which was paid for on the charity’s credit card.

He had contacted the woman after seeing her talking about her abuse during a BBC interview and arranged a meeting to discuss her working for NAPAC.

The newspaper reported that he met the woman and her friend for coffee before heading for lunch at a branch of the Bella Italia restaurant in Manchester, during which they consumed at least three bottles of wine.

Before eating, the devout Christian who was appointed by Pope Francis as a member of a Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2014, encouraged the group to join hands in prayer and thank God for 'good fellowship'. Later, it was reported that he went upstairs to use the lavatory where, he admitted, the encounter took place in a cubicle.

Mr Saunders insists that it was initiated by the woman and was entirely consensual, but she later made a complaint to the police that she had been raped - an allegation which he vehemently denies. The Crown Prosecution Service decided not to proceed with a case, citing insufficient evidence.

Mr Saunders - who was also sexually abused as a child - told the weekend paper: “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. It was instigated by her.”

He added: “She pretty much took me into a cubicle and she performed what they call a sex act on me. I was too drunk to stop it.”

Mr Saunders admitted he “had little doubt she [the complainant] was an abuse survivor” and agreed research shows abuse victims are vulnerable, prone to mental health issues and, in some cases, seek to deal with trauma by behaving in a sexually inappropriate manner. He expressed regret for paying the bill on NAPAC's credit card.

“For the past ten years I have berated myself for my stupidity,” he said. “I was entrusted with a NAPAC debit card and on this occasion I abused it. I don't know how much wine was drunk but I'm pretty sure I put it on the NAPAC debit card. I was reprimanded as much as anyone could be for my drunken mistake.”