Search: Sara Payne Phoenix Foundation charity
Campaigner Sara Payne has spoken of her anger after she was told she could not act as trustee of her own charity.
Mrs Payne, whose daughter Sarah, eight, was murdered by paedophile Roy Whiting in 2000, launched The Phoenix Foundation in order to help the victims of paedophiles.
But when registering the group with the Charities Commission earlier this year she was told she could not act as trustee as it would constitute a conflict of interest.
The charity was intended to provide a free advocacy service, supporting victims and their families through the courts and other services. She has now had to hand over control of the charity to another party, a decision which she said has left her feeling "betrayed".
Mrs Payne said she and two associates applied in June to the commission to work as 'unpaid trustees' of the charity. Once they had raised the cash needed they would step down to undertake the victim's advocacy work in accordance with the Charity Commissions rules.
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She explained: "The Charities Commission kept on claiming that we were applying or inferring that we were asking to be 'paid trustees' and claimed that my work on Sarah's Law and as a victim's advocate, created a potential conflict of interest that they would not explain - but that on those grounds - refused our application.
"In the end, just last week, we were forced to put three different people up as trustees to get the foundation registered and as a result of being forced to do that, our organisation closed on Friday, we lost our staff and some of our funders."
She added: "I've dedicated the last ten years of my life to child protection and victim advocacy and against all the odds have managed to achieve so much and feel there is so much more I can do, I feel betrayed, devastated and confused that I can't be a trustee of my own charity in order to raise funds for desperately needed services that are just not available anywhere else."
A spokeswoman for the Charity Commission said The Phoenix Foundation had now been registered. She explained: "Before the registration was completed there were a number of issues that needed to be addressed, including resolving a potential conflict of interest that existed in the charity's original application.
"Charity trustees must avoid any personal conflicts of interest and generally are not entitled to receive any payment out of the charity's funds. Where conflicts of interest do exist, these must be appropriately managed."
