AID SEX ROW
Minister Penny Mordaunt confronted by former foreign aid worker over claims of ‘silencing’ charity sex abuse victims
Alexia Pepper de Cairns rushed the stage at a summit as the Aid Secretary and Tory rising star addressed delegates
A FORMER foreign aid worker accused Penny Mordaunt of “silencing” charity sex abuse victims yesterday – as it emerged taxpayers are handing disgraced charities even MORE cash.
Alexia Pepper de Cairns rushed the stage at a summit as the Aid Secretary and Tory rising star addressed delegates.
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She told the Cabinet Minister she was “disgusted” disgraced Save the Children had been awarded an advisory role on a global panel to tackle sexual harassment given they are still under investigation by the Charity Commission for covering up alleged sex abuse.
Ms Pepper de Caires – a former whistleblower from Save the Children – told Ms Mordaunt: “This platform is not for you today. It is for the people doing this.”
Ms Mordaunt had convened the global summit in central London to discuss new initiatives to identify sex pests in the aid sector.
Ms Pepper de Caires said she had made her protest because she believed the women who had been most outspoken about abuse in the aid sector were being shut out by the conference organisers.
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She said: “The signals were that a number of women who have been more radically vocal about what has been happening were not being reached out to.
“I thought all along that this conference needed to be more than just a shiny, glossy piece for the cameras and press to say all the right things are being done.
“It was dishonest, it is ineffective and it won’t result in change.”
Minutes later Ms Mordaunt revealed that Oxfam and Save the Children had been handed overseas aid cash despite vowing to put a plug on funding in the wake of allegations they covered up sex abuse in the industry.
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She said they had been given money as part of the humanitarian recovery work in Indonesia following the tsunami.
But she told The Sun that she had not personally donated directly to the two disgraced charities since the shocking sex abuse scandal earlier this year.
Ms Mordaunt added: “I think people will have to make their own decisions about whether they donate.”
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