£18million-a-year abuse inquiry is so big it ‘could break justice system’ warns one of Britain’s most senior former judges

• Former Lord Chief Justice Harry Woolf called five-year inquiry ‘huge task’
• Historic sex abuse investigation was ‘sucking resources’ out of the system
• He said that he was not sure he would live to see the results of the probe  

By Martin Beckford for The Mail on Sunday

The troubled historic child abuse inquiry is so wide-ranging and costly it risks ‘breaking the system’, one of Britain’s most senior ex-judges has warned.

Lord Woolf said he feared Dame Lowell Goddard faces a ‘huge task’ chairing the five-year investigation into Establishment sex abuse and cover-ups, and predicted that he would not live to see its final report.

The former Lord Chief Justice added that the £18million-a-year probe is ‘sucking huge amounts of resources’ out of the system and questioned the Government’s priorities at a time of austerity.

He told a solicitors’ conference last week: ‘She [Goddard] has more and more on her plate.

‘I don’t believe I will see the results of her work. There is a danger that the task is so great that it might break the system.’

Lord Woolf went on: ‘If we have got the money to conduct these inquiries then I can see that they perform a service.

‘My fear is that they are sucking huge amounts of resources from the justice system.

‘We should be looking after the justice system for the needs of commerce and the individuals.

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