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Elizabeth Butler-Sloss on inquiry into allegations of historic child abuse

Today programme guest editor Elizabeth Butler-Sloss gave her first interview on Wednesday since standing down as head of the inquiry into allegations of historic child abuse.

She told Today's Sarah Montague: "I am a member of the Church of England and I'm proud of that, but my report was extremely critical of two priests."

"I also wrote another report which was not published, which referred to people who at that time had not been accused of any offences. Of whom I thought ought to be looked at. Since then some of them have actually come before the courts."

"I do believe that the establishment has in the past looked after itself. I think partly because people did not really recognise the seriousness of child abuse."

"I would want to go in with a knife and cut the whole thing open and expose it as to what happened."

First broadcast 30 December 2014.

Release date:

Duration:

8 minutes

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