The new head of the Historic Child Sexual Abuse Inquiry, Justice Lowell Goddard, is yet another Establishment figure — this time from New Zealand. 

By appointing a third inquiry head in six months, Home Secretary Theresa May has tried to avoid the mistakes of the past by choosing someone from the other side of the world.

But Goddard is essentially no different from the other two, Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf. They all wear similar Establishment baubles.

Goddard was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1988 and deputy solicitor-general for New Zealand in 1992. 

Described by Britain’s Home Office as a “highly respected member of the judiciary who has been at the forefront of criminal law and procedure” she oozes upper-class privilege. 

In June 2014, she was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to law. 

This latest episode in the saga of the inquiry follows the emergence of more evidence of the way the Establishment has systematically covered up child sexual abuse by high-profile paedophile MPs and civil servants. 

Under the 30-year secrecy rule, the National Archives have just released a file prepared for Margaret Thatcher which details the paedophile activities of Sir Peter Hayman, a former career diplomat and head of MI6. 

He was named by Geoffrey Dickens MP in the House of Commons when his name, along with many other MPs and government officials, was discovered in a dossier Dickens had collated. This file is the first clear evidence that Thatcher herself was aware of the investigation into Hayman. 

The Director of Public Prosecutions at the time did nothing either, despite correspondence within the dossier showing Hayman’s link to the Paedophile Information Exchange and evidence of his interest in the sexual torture of young children. 

This lack of action mirrored those of the then home secretary Leon Brittan who did nothing and allowed the dossier to get lost in the Home Office. 

His recent death means he cannot be questioned about his role in the Establishment cover-up by the inquiry when it eventually convenes. 

The Metropolitan Police has confirmed that Brittan was under investigation over allegations he too sexually abused young boys.

These new revelations came only weeks after May’s decision to disband the panel of members of the inquiry. 

This has caused confusion and argument among existing members of the inquiry panel and signals her intention to embrace those representing survivors of child sexual abuse who she deems “safe.” 

Most importantly it means protecting those Establishment figures at the heart of one of the biggest political scandals in modern times.

There is now a clear and repeating pattern of events surrounding the national inquiry. 

The result is more delay, confusion and no chance of an interim report to be available before the general election — thus depriving the electorate of a chance to express their opinion via the ballot box. 

The unfolding farce surrounding the latest move by the Home Secretary to delay the setting up of the inquiry is part of the pattern. 

The official announcement from the Home Office is that May wanted to balance making progress “with the need to get this right” by way of explaining that she intends to shut down the existing panel of experts including child sexual abuse survivors, and invite them to apply for positions on a new panel in 2015. 

Responding to demands that the inquiry be set up under statutory terms, May told the Commons home affairs select committee that this could either mean waiting for a chair to be appointed, who would then request such powers, or setting up a new inquiry panel under statutory terms.

Meanwhile, more evidence of an Establishment cover-up has emerged as another former local newspaper executive has now claimed that he too was issued with an official warning against reporting on an exclusive paedophile ring, when he was interviewed by an officer working for Operation Fernbridge, the major criminal investigation examining very specific claims of sexual abuse and grooming of children by an Establishment ring of paedophiles that included MPs, police officers and people with links to the royal family. 

Hilton Tims told a Fernbridge detective that his paper, the Surrey Comet, was issued with a D-notice in 1984 — an official warning not to publish intelligence that might damage national security — when he sought to report on a police investigation into the notorious Elm Guest House. 

This is the guest house where paedophile MP Cyril Smith and other Establishment figures preyed upon vulnerable children taken there from a nearby children’s home. 

Tims joins a list of newspaper editors who have gone on record to testify that similar gagging action took place around the same time. 

They include Don Hale, former editor of the Bury Messenger who recalled that Special Branch officers seized a paedophile dossier naming Establishment figures given to him by Labour peer Barbara Castle in the 1980s. 

Officers citing “national security” confiscated the file, which listed 16 MPs along with other local VIPs. 

The dossier was collated with help from concerned social workers by the former Labour MP for Blackburn who personally handed it to him. 

As well as key members of both the Commons and Lords, the dossier named 30 prominent businessmen, public school teachers, scoutmasters and police officers who had links to the Paedophile Information Exchange, a group dedicated to legalising sex with young children.

May has presided over a shambolic attempt to establish a credible inquiry. Two inquiry heads have stood down due to their close links to the Establishment, the terms of the inquiry have been changed and the membership of the inquiry panel has been undermined and then disbanded. 

Incriminating files and the Dickens dossier have been lost, while journalists have revealed that they were prevented from publicising paedophile MPs’ activities by MI5 using the official secrets gagging laws. 

These further revelations show that the Establishment cover-up went right to the top of government. 

It is no surprise that the majority of the public have expressed no confidence in May’s inquiry when it eventually convenes.

Steven Walker is a Unicef children’s champion.