One year ago today Kevin Sutherland ended his life after the chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry Lady Smith decided he could not remove his name from the probe’s website.
The family of a sex abuse victim who took his own life after a judge refused his plea for anonymity have joined forces with campaigners calling for her to quit.
One year ago today Kevin Sutherland ended his life at the Forth Road Bridge after the chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry Lady Smith decided he could not remove his name from the probe’s website. First Minister John Swinney has now received a letter from Kevin’s mum Mary with more than 60 supporters, including broadcaster Nicky Campbell and other abuse survivors, calling for Lady Smith to go.
The letter says that unless retired judge Smith is replaced “the outputs and conclusions of the inquiry will have very limited credibility”. Kevin’s mother Mary and sister Melanie blame Lady Smith for their loss and believe her “disregard” of Kevin’s pleas suggest she is unfit to chair the inquiry.
Mary said last night: “He was my son. He really was a lovely laddie, good-looking, kind-hearted and generous. He would do anything for you. I’m still as upset as I was that first day, and maybe even more because Lady Smith has not apologised and shows no sign of stepping down.
“For the last few months of his life, all he could talk about was her refusal to take his statement down from the inquiry website or give him a false name. It slowly destroyed him, breaking his heart, and then by ending his life, he broke my heart. I’ll never get over it, and I’ll never forgive that woman.”
Her daughter Melanie said new revelations shared with them recently had added to the family’s fury. They have learned that names of more than 20 senior staff and governors of private schools where abuse was rife have been withheld by the inquiry.
They include a former headmaster of Fettes and a senior figure in the junior school at a time when sexual and barbaric physical abuse were rife.
Melanie said: “Kevin was clearly desperate, and the possibility of suicide should have been screaming at her, but she cared about authority figures, not their victims. Special treatment for the people who should have been keeping children safe makes me even angrier about losing my brother.”
Giles Moffat, spokesman for Edinburgh Academy’s survivors’ group, was among those who co-signed Mary’s letter.
He said: “Confidence in the integrity of the chair and the inquiry are already low. I think we need to know why the great and the good’s desire to avoid embarrassment was so much more important than the inquiry’s duty to Kevin.”
BBC star Nicky Campbell, who was himself physically abused at Edinburgh Academy, is also supporting Mary.
He said: “It is impossible to look at what happened to Kevin and not feel that he deserved so much better. The interests of survivors of childhood sexual abuse need to be paramount in an abuse inquiry. That surely goes without saying. I really feel for his mum and sister.”
The letter to Mr Swinney also claims Lady Smith misled the media and public by claiming to have no connection with boarding schools when her husband had attended posh Edinburgh school Fettes and one of her children attended nearby Edinburgh Academy.
Both schools have featured prominently in the inquiry.
The letter to Swinney says: “We ask you urgently to prepare for a replacement [Chair] who can restore confidence and integrity in the work of this inquiry. There is no reason why the work cannot be completed by a more suitable leadership team, and we have no desire to see it fail.”
Kevin died nine days before his 34th birthday and six days before Christmas last year. He gave evidence to the inquiry in 2022 about gross sexual and physical abuse while in care during a difficult spell in his childhood.
He signed an anonymity waiver allowing the inquiry to use his real name but later regretted it when he realised his statement was online, possibly forever. He had also failed to realise that his statement could be accessed and read by anyone who searched on his name after it went online.
Despite repeated pleas for it to be removed, or for a pseudonym to be adopted as it had for many others, Lady Smith refused, citing his decision to sign the waiver. Kevin posted on social media in the early hours of the morning from the area around the Forth Bridges that he was about to die.
He tried to phone his mother and left a heart-breaking voice message when he failed to wake her, telling her he loved her but that he could not go on in the face of the “total f***ing disregard” he’d been shown. He also sent her deeply moving written messages before alerting the emergency services and ending his life.
Despite his 999 call his body has never been found. The inquiry was established in 2015 and by 30 September this year, costs had reached just short of £102m.
Lady Smith has earned some £2.5m in salary and pension contributions since taking the chair in 2016.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Our sympathies go to the family of Mr Sutherland on the anniversary of his disappearance. We are supportive of the independent review considering the inquiry’s interactions with Mr Sutherland and await its conclusions. We are grateful to all the victims and families who have bravely shared their experiences with the inquiry.”
