Camila Batmanghelidjh: Kids Company closure 'followed by suicide attempts and murder', Alan Yentob tells MPs

Four suicide attempts, stabbings and a murder followed the sudden closure of Kids Company, MPs were told in a hearing over the charity's management today.

Alan Yentob, the chairman of trustees and creative director of the BBC, said violence erupted in the “absence of a place for these children to go” when it collapsed in August amid controversy over funding and how it was run.

Bernard Jenkin, chairman of the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee, said MPs were advised the attacks, including a boy's murder five days after the closure, happened in part because “desperate kids no longer had money to pay their drug pushers”.

Mr Yentob dismissed the “terrible allegation” and launched an impassioned defence of the London-based charity's work alongside its founder, Camila Batmanghelidjh, in Westminster.

They were forced to deny a slew of allegations during three hours of questioning by the committee today.

Ms Batmanghelidjh blamed a "suspicious" leak exposing a police investigation into alleged historical sexual abuse for the charity's closure.

She said the collapse of Kids Company was forced by news of Scotland Yard’s investigation, which she said was “suspiciously” timed hours after the charity received a £3 million government grant.

"Only our finance person and the Cabinet Office knew that the money had hit our account. Suddenly out of the blue we get allegations that we don't even know relate to sexual abuse,” she added.

"Within hours, it was all over the BBC and news outlets that these related to allegedly sexual abuse against children by Kids Company. That was the kiss of death for a charity dealing with children…I have incredible nervousness about the type of briefings that have been flying around between Government and elements of the media.

"I think that democracy of this country is compromised by behaviours like this.”

In a series of heated exchanges, Ms Batmanghelidjh repeatedly denied Kids Company had been a failing organisation and hit out at officials, who she claimed had sought to undermine it.

"Some civil servants have been absolutely malicious and unprofessional and have behaved in ways that isn't respectful of a democracy and you need to look into this," she said.

The panel of MPs cited reports that Kids Company had given young people hundreds of pounds in cash, supported one person abroad and paid for an £150 pair of shoes during the examination.

But Ms Batmanghelidjh said weekly sums ranged from £10 to £200 were appropriate, adding: “It has turned into the notion that it was handed out willy-nilly. It wasn't. It was accounted for.”

The founder told the committee that ”poverty intervention payments“ were made to cover food vouchers, bus passes and emergency grants.

Ms Batmanghelidjh also denied claims that the company had instructed former staff to shred client records after the charity closed, less than a week after receiving a £3 million government grant.

"That is completely incorrect,” she said. “We did not shred any client records and the records were all handed over to the official receiver.

"What we handed over were 18,000 hard copy files that contained family members in them.

"In addition we handed over a database of our most high risk cases which amounted to 15,933 individuals. And we handed over copies of 117 referral forms we did. Absolutely no records were shredded."

The pair was also questioned about a memo sent to the Cabinet Office stating that communities helped by the charity would descend into riots, looting and arson if it closed.

Asked if it was a shocking thing to say about "ordinary, decent" people, Mr Yentob denied writing the letter and said "it was a safeguarding document intended to be a worst case scenario".

Ms Batmanghelidjh raised concerns about the future of the charity’s clients and called for scrutiny of the services now handling them.

The charismatic charity founder, who met with the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers during her tenure, accused the Government of failing to understand communities and transferring its own responsibility of care to the voluntary sector while making cuts.

Saying the Government and local authorities had ”no interest in admitting the scale of the problem in this country", she added: “I feel that actually representatives of leadership in this country don't really have a visceral understanding of what it is like in some of these neighbourhoods for many of the children, young people and families.

"The levels of violence and perversion that some of these young people are having to endure is really very shocking."

Ms Batmanghelidjh said she resorted to offering the Cabinet Office her own flat as a surety that she would raise £8 million for Kids Company, which was part of the agreement securing the £3 million grant, and said civil servants were aware part of the funds would be used for staff salaries.

Mr Yentob was repeatedly questioned about a possible conflict of interest with his role at the BBC and at Kids Company, which he denied, saying he did not mean to “intimidate” a producer by standing next to him as Ms Batmanghelidjh was interviewed on the Today programme.

"My only regret and my great regret and sadness is that perhaps we tried to look after too many children and we tried to do too much," he added.

Additional reporting by PA