In February 2020 the IICSA published an interim report
'Allegations of child sexual abuse linked to Westminster'
(extract page 141 onwards)
The Green Party and Aimee and David Challenor
15. In November 2016, David Challenor was charged with 22 serious criminal offences, including taking indecent photographs, false imprisonment, rape, sexual assault of a child, assault by penetration and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was subsequently
convicted of 20 offences including rape and was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment.
16. At the time, Ms Aimee Challenor, David Challenor’s daughter, was a member of the Green Party and chair of the national LGBTIQA+883 Greens. When her father was charged, she informed two external communications coordinators for the Green Party, Matt Hawkins
and Clare Phipps. This was in general terms (via a private Facebook message) that her father was being charged; she did not mention that the charges related to offences against children.
On the same date Ms Challenor also informed Coventry Pride, of which she was a trustee.
17. On the same day, 5 November 2016, Mr Hawkins informed three Green Party staff members in the press team by email that a close relative of a Green Party spokesperson had been arrested. He asked the staff members to contact him if anyone contacted them concerning the matter.
18. In April 2017, Ms Challenor was selected to be the Green Party General Election candidate for Coventry South. In May 2017, she appointed her father David Challenor as her election agent when she stood as a general election candidate. In May 2018, David Challenor
was appointed as election agent for Aimee and for Tina Challenor, his wife, in the May 2018 local elections. In June or July 2018, Ms Challenor was selected as a candidate for deputy leader of the Green Party.
19. Throughout this period, David Challenor was facing very serious charges of child sexual abuse.
20. The Green Party commissioned Verita, an independent investigations consultancy, to carry out a private investigation. Its report dated January 2019 found that:
“Prioritising the safety of children and vulnerable people is an individual responsibility of every member of society. There could hardly be a bigger ‘red flag’ in this respect than someone being charged with 22 sexual offences. Irrespective of where the responsibility lies, one of the effects of the way this case was handled was that someone who had committed serious sexual offences was given roles of responsibility within the Green Party during a period of almost two years after a major safeguarding risk should have been apparent. David Challenor bears some responsibility for this, but Aimee Challenor, as an officer of the party both nationally and locally should have considered safeguarding issues.”
“Aimee Challenor had a number of roles, both locally and nationally, each of which carried important responsibilities. In not ensuring that the right people in the party were told what they needed to know, Aimee failed to fulfil her roles adequately. This is even clearer
in her encouragement of her father to become more involved in the party by, for example, appointing him as her election agent in 2017 after she knew of charges against him. This was a serious error of judgement, which she repeated when she appointed him as her
election agent in 2018.”
21. The Verita report also stressed the importance of the Green Party developing a strong safeguarding culture and made the following observation:
“It is disappointing that many people we spoke to in the party failed to see the safeguarding issues that arise here. Those in the party who were told about David Challenor’s activities saw the issue as primarily a communications one – about protecting the reputation of the party. Awareness of safeguarding issues in the party in general appears to be low.”
22. From the evidence we heard from Liz Reason, Chair of the Green Party Executive, safeguarding issues remain a matter which the Green Party needs to address.
On 17 December 2014, the Green Party received an email containing allegations of child sexual abuse against a Green Party candidate for the House of Commons. Ms Reason told us that the Green Party could not find a record of this on their system or of any action taken
in response to the email at the time. In a supplementary witness statement, she said that the Green Party was still investigating how they had responded to the email when it was received in December 2014, adding:
“From the information ascertained so far it appears that key officers spoke to the party member accused of child sexual abuse in the email and established that no child sexual abuse charges had been brought against them.”
23. The 2014 email was provided to the Inquiry in response to its request for any information held by the Green Party pertaining to child sexual abuse. However, it was not until the Inquiry made a rule 9 request to the Green Party on 8 November 2018 that further internal inquiries were triggered. Ms Reason explained this on the basis that the first time any current officers and staff in the Green Party had seen the email was when a copy was provided along with the Inquiry’s request (notwithstanding that the email had originally been provided to the Inquiry by the Green Party itself).
24. The information contained in this email appears not to have been dealt with in accordance with appropriate safeguarding and child protection procedures. The email was archived when staff members left. This was a failing. If it is correct that the only action taken was to speak to the member concerned, it supports the Verita findings that the Green Party saw allegations of child sexual abuse as primarily a communications issue – about protecting the reputation of the Party – rather than a safeguarding one.
25. After these events, Aimee Challenor joined the Liberal Democrat Party. At the time of the hearing, we understand she was the Diversity Officer on the Coventry Liberal Democrats Executive Committee. In light of this, Mr Scorer and Ms Harrison asked whether action should be taken where an individual who is known or suspected of having
failed to respond appropriately to safeguarding concerns as a member of one political party joins another political party at a later point in time.
26. Professor Thoburn told us that she would expect the matter to be covered by a crossover of safeguarding and child protection policy and disciplinary policy, and that further training may be appropriate for any such person. For child protection and safeguarding to be effective, political parties must ensure that their members and those in positions of authority – including those who may have joined from other parties – are appropriately trained and aware of safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures. (continues)
www.iicsa.org.uk/document/allegations-child-sexual-abuse-linked-westminster-investigation-report