The chair of the BBC’s Children in Need charity has resigned over grants given to a charity hit by child abuse scandals.
Rosie Millard, 59, told the board of the charity she was resigning over “institutional failure”, and accused chief executive, Simon Antrobus, of failing to take controversy around the grants seriously.
It comes after Children in Need gave £466,000 to LGBT Youth Scotland, with the grants starting seven months after its former chief executive, James Rennie, was convicted in 2009 of child sex attacks.
Another employee affiliated with the LGBT Youth Scotland (LGBTYS) was also convicted this year of sharing indecent images of children, including some of newborn babies.
In a letter seen by The Times newspaper, Ms Millard criticised Mr Antrobus over his handling of the matter, saying he had complained upon hearing of the 2009 case that it had spoiled his enjoyment of a Bruce Springsteen concert.
She said grants were only suspended to LGBTYS in May after she raised the case, and accused senior officials of dithering before finally decided to cut the grants completely three months later.
Ms Millard wrote in her resignation letter that Mr Antrobus and senior managers “did everything in their power to distract the board from its duty to sever funding” to LGBTYS.
She accused Mr Antrobus as “solipsistic”, claiming he only eventually ordered the withdrawal of funds to the charity “out of fear of publicity”, following “dithering and delay”.
Rennie was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum of eight-and-a-half years for sexually assaulting a three-month-old child in 2009.
Meanwhile, further questions were raised about Children in Need’s grants to the charity after Andrew Easton, who co-authored the charity’s former schools guidance, was convicted of child sex offences.
He was sentenced to a community order after detectives found chat logs between Easton and someone he believed to be a vulnerable 13-year-old, as well as images featuring newborn babies.
A BBC Children in Need spokesman said: “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of all children and young people. When allegations were made in relation to LGBT Youth Scotland their grant was immediately suspended with the full support of the board and a review began.
“In order to do this thoroughly and fairly the review took three months and culminated in the decision to withdraw funding.
“The Children in Need board of trustees are supportive of the actions taken by the CEO and senior leadership team and stand by the decisions made.
“Rosie at all times retained the board’s support. In the wake of her resignation, in order to ensure any lessons learnt are captured, the trustees have instigated a review of ways of working between the board and executive in which Rosie has kindly agreed to participate.”
But Mhairi Crawford, chief executive of LGBTYS, claimed Ms Millard’s resignation letter was part of her “ideologically driven” attack on LGBTYS.
“We are pleased to see confirmation that Children in Need’s investigations into the work of LGBT Youth Scotland found nothing to report,” they said.
“Time and time again, those with anti-inclusivity motives point to historic allegations in attempts to destroy our reputation. Allegations that have been investigated and cleared by Police Scotland, and proven to have had no link to our work.”
