The_Times__6_March_2020

the times | Friday March 6 2020 2GM 21

News

The head of Save the Children who had
repeatedly refused to meet victims of
sexual harassment at the charity’s
London headquarters is now seeking a
meeting with them.
Kevin Watkins says that he wants to
offer a “heartfelt apology” to women
who endured “unacceptable behav-
iour” by executives.
However, in an interview with The
Times, he avoided questions about why
he had cancelled requests from the
women for meetings with him.
Asked if he felt he had let them down,
Mr Watkins, 63, said: “There is no ques-
tion that the women involved in these
complaints were let down by our orga-
nisation. I’ve written to the women and
I’ve apologised and I’m very hopeful we
will be able to meet in the near future.”
Politicians and campaigners have
called for Mr Watkins to resign as chief
executive after a Charity Commission
investigation found the charity guilty of
mismanagement in its handling of

Save the Children chief to finally

meet sexual harassment victims

Manveen Rana, Sean O’Neill sexual harassment and bullying allega-
tions in 2015. It identified “serious fail-
ures” and “serious weaknesses” and
issued a warning about the “integrity
and accuracy” of some press statements
made when the scandal broke in 2018.
The men accused of harassing
women were Justin Forsyth, who was
chief executive, and Brendan Cox, the
policy director. Both had been Down-
ing Street aides. The claims against Mr
Forsyth were dealt with informally
and Mr Cox resigned before a disci-
plinary inquiry was completed.
Both apologised for their conduct.
Mr Watkins was a trustee of Save
the Children in 2015 and a friend of
Mr Forsyth from their time at
Oxfam in the 1990s. He
provided a reference
which helped Mr For-
syth to get a job at
Unicef after he left

Save the Children. By 2018, when the

allegations concerning Mr Forsyth and

Mr Cox became public, Mr Watkins

had become chief executive and was

involved in the decision to spend more

than £100,000 on media lawyers to try

to control reporting of the scandal.

Reporters were threatened with legal

action when they asked questions and

published stories about the case.

Mr Watkins admitted that the

approach the charity had taken

was “too defensive” and it had

been wrong to spend charitable

funds on lawyers to contest sto-

ries, but he said that there had

been “no attempt to close down

stories in this case”. He said that the

commission report had acknowl-

edged that real change had

occurred at the organisation

in the past two years.

That report is facing criti-

cism. After a two-year

inquiry, the commission’s

findings ran to 38 pages

and omitted the names of

key individuals who ran the charity,

made decisions and were accused of

misconduct. Brie O’Keefe, a former

Save the Children worker who raised

concerns about misconduct, said that

the regulator’s report was “so vague and

sterilised that if I hadn’t been working

at the organisation during the time

period in question, I would have no idea

what they were talking about”.

She added: “They do not name the

behaviours that were so severe women

were willing to risk the professional

blowback and career suicide by making

complaints about the CEO and director

of policy. They do not even clarify that

Employee A is Justin Forsyth, surely a

pertinent detail when looking at how

complaints were managed.”

Save the Children withdrew from

bidding for aid money because of the

scandal. The Department for Inter-

national Development said: “We are

fighting to end sexual violence across

the world every day and expect the

charities we work with to do the same.”

Leading article, page 29

Fantasist who stole £2.7m from charity back in court

A woman jailed in the 1990s for stealing
£2.7 million from the hospital charity of
which she was deputy director has been
back in court after cash and items
worth more than £100,000 went miss-
ing from her late father’s estate.
In the 1980s Rosemary Aberdour
used her ill-gotten gains to live out an
opulent fantasy life, claiming to be a
rich heiress and calling herself Lady
Rosemary. In 1992 she pleaded guilty to

17 charges of deception, theft and for-

gery in her role as deputy director of the

National Hospital Development Foun-

dation. She was sentenced to four years

in prison.

The case, which received inter-

national attention, was detailed in a

BBC documentary called Scam.

She is now Rosemary Cubbin, 58,

and appeared at the High Court in

London in a case brought by her

brother, Robert Aberdour, who wants

her removed as an executor of their

father’s will. The siblings are the only

beneficiaries of Kenneth Aberdour’s

estate and Mr Aberdour says his sister

has failed to account for about £90,000

in cash and items from his house. The

court was told that the police were

investigating.

Mrs Cubbin had power of attorney

over her father’s affairs but the Office of

the Public Guardian found that sums

totalling £156,544.60 were a “cause for

concern” between October 2014 and

November 2016, and had to be account-

ed for. Her power of attorney was

removed in November 2017.

After a day of argument in court the

siblings and their spouses agreed that

all four should step down as executors

and that an independent solicitor

should take over.

Windrush case

leaves Rudd

no-platformed

Greg Wilford

Amber Rudd has been “no-platformed”

at Oxford University, as students boy-

cotted a speech by the former home

secretary because of her links to the

Windrush scandal.

Ms Rudd, who was home secretary

when the scandal came to light in 2018,

was due to deliver a speech to the uni-

versity’s UN Women Oxford society

last night. However, she was said to

have arrived to find an empty hall after

the event was cancelled at short notice

after complaints from students.

She told the Daily Mail: “It was sup-

posed to be all about International

Women’s Day, to inspire young women

to get into politics. This is outrageous.”

Felicity Graham , the society’s presi-

dent, said that she had come under

intense pressure to scrap the event after

the group’s committee approved an

invitation to Ms Rudd in January.

Ms Graham received a call from fel-

low members saying they no longer

supported the invitation 30 minutes

before the event started. She said: “It

was ultimately my decision but every

single person on the committee was

against and I was given no choice. It was

the Oxford African and Caribbean

Society — who hold a lot of power —

who really applied the pressure.”

The cancellation comes a day after

Selina Todd, an Oxford history profes-

sor, said that she was no-platformed by

the Oxford International Women’s Fes-

tival after pressure from trans activists.

Ms Rudd resigned as home secretary

after it was revealed that people of

Caribbean heritage who had arrived in

the UK between 1948 and 1971 had been

wrongly threatened with deportation,

detained and refused re-entry.

ADAM PARTRIDGE/BNPS

H

e was

conqueror of

most of the

known world

and

dazzlingly handsome.

But when his bust was

dug up in a Surrey

garden, he was

dismissed as Regency tat

(Mark Bridge writes).

Now a marble head of

Alexander the Great

uncovered by a gardener

at Sutton Place has sold

for almost £400,000

after it was recognised

as an ancient original.

The sculpture had

been buried in the

grounds of the Tudor

mansion near Guildford

that in the 1960s and 70s

belonged to Jean Paul

Getty, the oil billionaire,

collector and world’s

richest man. It was

unearthed by one of

dozens of gardeners who

worked for the next

owner, the art collector

Stanley Seeger. He

unearthed the 15in bust

in about 1984. No one

recognised its

significance and he was

told by Seeger that he

could keep it.

The gardener had the

item on display at his

flat in London until a

recent clearout. Valuers

and cowl. It is not

known when or why the

sculpture was buried in

the gardens of the

grade I-listed Sutton

Place, which was built in

about 1525 and visited by

Henry VIII. Getty was

an extensive collector of

Greek and Roman

sculpture but previous

occupiers may have also

owned such pieces.

Sophie Harral, of

Adam Partridge, said

the auctioneer realised

that it was much older

than the initial estimate

because of the interest.

“We didn’t know what

to expect but ultimately

the market decided it

was 1st century BC,” she

said. “Our client has had

it since 1984. He worked

for Stanley Seeger in the

1980s and while at

Sutton Place he worked

on redeveloping the

garden. He dug the bust

in the gardens where it

had been buried.

“It was a gift to our

client from Stanley

Seeger. Our client had

no idea of what it was

worth but did display it

in his flat in London. He

was happy with our

initial estimate of it so

you can imagine his

response when it sold.

We are delighted with

the result, which is a

house record for us.”

Lost bust of Alexander

rakes in small fortune

The marble bust of

Alexander the Great was

found at Sutton Place in

Surrey, once owned by the

billionaire Jean Paul Getty

at an auction house

identified it as being a

late 18th or early 19th

century bust of

Hercules. It was

originally listed as such

by Adam Partridge

Auctioneers, of

Macclesfield, with an

estimate of £600-£1,000.

However, antiquities

collectors, dealers and

experts soon began

contacting the Cheshire

auction rooms to

express an interest.

Many believed it dates to

the 1st century BC and

depicts the youthful

Alexander, who was

often shown wearing the

lion’s cowl of Hercules.

The identification is not

certain and others have

speculated that it might

be the Roman emperor

Augustus.

With 17

telephone bidders

it sold for

£320,000, and a

total of

£385,000 with

auctioneers’

fees. It would

have sold for

more if there

were not old

repairs to the nose

be the Ro

August

Wi

tele

it s

£3

to

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Kevin Watkins said

he wanted to offer a

“heartfelt apology”