Camila Batmanghelidjh

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In her first in-depth broadcast interview since winning the High Court disqualification case regarding the disbanded children's charity Kids Company, its founder, Camila Batmanghelidjh, psychotherapist and author, joined Emma earlier this week. The High Court judgement came about because the Official Receiver claimed that Camila Batmanghelidjh, and seven former trustees of the charity Kids Company, had failed to properly manage the charity in the final months of its existence. After a three and a half year case, and 10 weeks in court, Mrs Justice Falk praised Camila Batmanghelidjh for the “enormous dedication she showed to vulnerable young people over many years” and her achievements in building a charity that “until 2014 was widely regarded as a highly successful one". Camila tells Emma why she fought so long and hard to be cleared. Last week, the BBC obtained videos in which Princess Latifa, the daughter of Dubai's ruler described being held in solitary confinement after trying to flee the United Arab Emirates. Now BBC News has seen a letter from Princess Latifa which asks Cambridgeshire Police to re-open an investigation into her sister’s disappearance 20 years ago. Emma discusses the story with Jane McMullen, the BBC journalist who broke this story for Panorama with her film The Missing Princess and Rothna Begum, a senior women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. Producer: Louise Corley Editor: Karen Dalziel

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:05.3	Hello, I'm Emma Barnett and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4.
0:10.0	Good morning.
0:11.0	Today an exclusive interview.
0:12.8	Two weeks ago Camilla Batman-Gelage, the founder and director of the Disbanded Charity
0:17.0	Kids Company, won a high court disqualification case.
0:21.5	It's part of a battle she's been fighting for six years since the charity was forced
0:25.5	to close.
0:26.5	Today, in her first in-depth broadcast interview since that verdict, Camilla lifts the lid
0:31.6	on her battle and talks about some of the powerful figures she alleges led to her own personal
0:37.0	public vilification and the closure of her organisation.
0:41.4	Founded in 1996 in South London, Kids Company provided practical, emotional and educational
0:46.9	support to up to 36,000 deprived and vulnerable inner-city children and young people.
0:53.2	It closed its doors in August 2015.
0:56.4	After a three and a half year legal case, a fortnight ago, the high court threw out claims
1:01.0	by the official receiver that Camilla Batman-Gelage and seven former trustees of the charity
1:06.3	Kids Company had failed to properly manage the charity in the final months of its existence.
1:12.4	Mrs Justice Fork said, if it had not been for the unfounded allegations, it is more likely
1:18.0	that not that the restructure would have succeeded and the charity would have survived.
1:23.6	The judge praised Camilla Batman-Gelage for the enormous dedication she showed to vulnerable
1:28.2	young people over many years and her achievements in building a charity that until 2014 was widely
1:34.2	regarded as a highly successful one.
	...

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