A WHISTLEBLOWER into sexual exploitation said she urged Oxfam to invest more into safeguarding – but said she quit her role in frustration.

Helen Evans, who is a Labour county councillor and lives in Oxford, said as the global head of safeguarding for the charity between 2012 and 2015 she had been ‘extremely concerned’ about the reports of sexual abuse against beneficiaries and Oxfam’s own staff.

Those affected even included children volunteering in Oxfam’s charity shops in the UK, she said. 

Oxfam has faced intense criticism over its handling of sex allegations, including the use of prostitutes by workers in Haiti in 2011.

It comes as a full inquiry has been launched into the scandal by the Charity Commission. 

Ms Evans told Channel 4 News that in one survey undertaken by the charity, it was told that one in 10 staff had experienced unwanted sexual touching.

She added: “We hadn’t even gone out to beneficiaries who were receiving aid from us. I was extremely, extremely concerned.”

She also alleged that the breadth of allegations over sexual abuse stretched even to the charity’s shops.

Oxfam found there had been 12 reports of inappropriate conduct with children in 2012/13 and seven in 2013/14.

Ms Evans: said: “There was one case of an adult volunteer assaulting a child volunteer – that went to court. And that troubled me because I knew that Oxfam was not conducting the criminal record checks it needed to, that children were being left alone with adults who had not been record checked.”

She said she had raised concerns with the Charity Commission, which told Channel 4 last night that a formal action plan had been issued to the charity.

But it added: "The charity told us that its approach to safeguarding was improving...(but) the charity has not been sufficiently open with us about safeguarding incidents." 

Oxfam's deputy chief executive Penny Lawrence resigned earlier today, saying she was 'ashamed' of what had happened. 

The charity promised on Sunday to tighten up its procedures to prevent sexual abuse and improve its reporting of it in the future. 

The International Development Secretary has today said she will not move "hastily" in deciding whether to withdraw Government funding of Oxfam over the aid worker scandal but promised to take the issue "very seriously".

Penny Mordaunt told BBC News: "I know people will be worried about the charity, they'll be worried about the money, but we need to be guided by what the Charity Commission are doing and also I have made it very clear to Oxfam what we expect to see from them.

"But these decisions shouldn't be taken hastily, but I am considering them."