LGBT group took millions from gov’t, ‘spent lavishly’ on computers, meals
A charity providing the United Kingdom ’s only national domestic abuse hotline for LGBT persons went belly up in 2016 because of negligent government agencies , a profligate CEO and lavish overspending, according to a report by the government’s National Audit Office . Broken Rainbow , which during its 12-year existence received £1.4 million from various government agencies, provided support for LGBT people abused by their partners. Its volunteers fielded more than 450 telephone calls and 849 online contacts a month during its final year of operations. When the government (and majority-funding source) finally shut it down after a flurry of media exposes, the actual service moved seamlessly to another charity. Though the report names no names, CEO Jo Harvey Barringer was the focus of damaging media coverage in 2015 and 2016, when Broken Rainbow operated “hand-to-mouth,” according to the report. Buzzfeed used inside reports from a presumed board or staff member named “Paul