Labour peer Greville Janner avoids child sex abuse charges due to ill health

The Crown Prosecution Service decision has sparked furious reaction from campaigners for victims as Janner goes unpunished

Greville Janner in 1981. The Director of Public Prosecutions said it was a matter of ‘deep regret’ that no charges were ever brought against him (Rex)

For nearly half a century, Greville Janner demanded justice for those he represented as an eminent Parliamentarian and barrister. Any prospect of such satisfaction was removed from those who claim they were victims of decades of paedophile abuse by the Labour peer after prosecutors admitted he had been wrongly allowed to evade trial on three occasions.

Despite evidence that the frail 86-year-old politician committed “some of the most serious sexual crimes imaginable”, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that a fourth – and final – opportunity to bring criminal charges against him will now not be pursued because of the “severity” of his dementia.

The Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders said sufficient evidence had been found to bring 22 charges dating back to the late 1960s against Lord Janner, including four counts of buggery against a minor, but medical experts had established the peer was not fit to stand trial and it was not in the public interest to pursue him.

Ms Saunders added that enough evidence had also previously been found to prosecute the Labour peer on three occasions – in 1991, 2002 and 2007 – for alleged sex abuse. She said it was a matter of “deep regret” that no charges were ever brought, but stopped short of issuing an apology.

Lord Janner opens a skateboard park in Leicester in 1978 when he was MP (Rex)

Lord Janner, who faces a “core allegation” of using his power as a Leicester MP to gain access to children in a local children’s home before abusing them, has always denied the claims. His family said he was “entirely innocent of any wrongdoing”.

The announcement that he will not face trial, described as an “outrage” by victims’ groups, threw into chaos efforts to bring to justice alleged perpetrators of historical child abuse within the Establishment. The force which investigated Lord Janner called the CPS decision not to prosecute “wrong” and said it was considering a legal challenge to have it overturned.

Assistant Chief Constable Roger Bannister, who oversaw the latest Leicestershire Police investigation into Lord Janner, named Operation Enamel, said: “I am extremely worried about the impact the decision not to prosecute him will have on those people, and more widely I am worried about the message this decision sends out to others who have suffered and are suffering sexual abuse.

Sir Clive Loader, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicestershire, said: “This decision is wholly perverse and is contrary to any notion of natural justice.”

The failure to ensure that Lord Janner, who the CPS said was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2009 and now requires 24-hour care, faced trial between 1991 and 2007 will give fresh impetus to claims that there was a cover-up of abuse allegations against Establishment figures.

Beck was sentenced to five life terms for child abuse and rape

Earlier this year, the Derbyshire Chief Constable Mick Creedon said he had been ordered by his superiors not to arrest Lord Janner or search his home during an investigation into the peer in 1989 when he was a detective sergeant in Leicestershire. The claims surfaced during an investigation into Frank Beck, the manager of Leicester children’s homes, who died in jail after being convicted in 1991 of abusing boys in his care. Lord Janner, who served as a Leicester MP from 1970 to 1997 until he was made a peer, stood up in the Commons in 1991 to deny any involvement when his name was mentioned during Beck’s trial.

One of Lord Janner’s alleged victims has told The Independent he believed the peer should face trial. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he had been abused by the former MP for a decade from the age of seven while in care in Leicestershire, and said a suggestion from the CPS that victims should now testify to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was “insulting”.

He said: “If they can prosecute war criminals into their 90s, why is this man treated differently? Time and again we have seen times when Greville Janner should have stood trial just pushed under the carpet. OK, this man is ill, but what happened to me as a child does not go away.”

The CPS had the option of holding a “trial of the facts” to determine if Lord Janner committed the offences, even if he is unfit for trial, but opted against it. Campaigners described the decision not to press charges as a “step backwards for justice”. Pete Saunders, of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, told the BBC: “There is enough evidence to proceed with this case and that Alison Saunders can say it is not in the public interest is an outrage... The message here is that if you are old or important you can still get away with it.”

Leicestershire Police said it had interviewed more than 2,000 people as part of its investigation and 25 had come forward to make complaints. Around a dozen made allegations against Lord Janner.

The CPS said it was satisfied there is sufficient evidence to charge the peer with 14 indecent assaults on a male aged under 16 between 1969 and 1988; two indecent assaults between 1984 and 1988; four counts of buggery of a male under 16 between 1972 and 1987; and two counts of buggery between 1977 and 1988.

Ms Saunders said there were “real lessons to be learnt” from the handling of the investigations into Lord Janner and she recognised the decision would be “extremely disappointing” to those who had complained against him. The CPS said it had asked a retired High Court judge to examine its handling of previous cases which it acknowledged had been “wrong".

The Prime Minister in 2011 with Greville Janner to his right (Andrew Winning/AFP/Getty Images)

In a statement, the prosecuting body said: “Had the previous decisions been to prosecute, as they should have been, Lord Janner would have had the opportunity to challenge the evidence and defend himself through the trial process... Victims of the alleged offences have been denied the opportunity of criminal proceedings in relation to the offences of which they have complained.”

Leicestershire Police said it had referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission over its handling of the investigation into Lord Janner in 2002, which was not referred to the CPS and which prosecutors said should have resulted in charges.

The Labour Party has suspended Lord Janner but he will remain a member of the House of Lords until his death. The peer’s family described him as a “man of great integrity and high repute with a long and unblemished record of public service”.

A statement said the CPS decision “does not mean or imply that any of the allegations that have been made are established or that Lord Janner is guilty of any offence.”

Fit for court? Legal tests

In order for a fair trial to be held, the defendant must be capable of understanding what is happening so they can instruct their lawyers and make a plea.

The court would consider whether the defendant is “putting it on” and take advice from doctors. The CPS said this was “out of the question” in this case.

The CPS could have decided to bring a “fitness to plead” process in court. If the defendant was found unfit, a “trial of the facts” could then be held to determine if they had carried out the offences they were accused of.