Lord Janner will not face child sex charges because of ill-health

Δημοσιεύθηκε: 16 Απριλίου 2015 - 18:52

Lord Janner will be spared charges for alleged child sex crimes committed 25 years ago because he has Alzheimer's disease and is too unwell to face trial, the director of public prosecutions has decided.

Alison Saunders said on Thursday that there was enough evidence to charge the 86-year-old Labour peer and former MP with 22 sexual offences, but that his condition rendered him incapable of instructing lawyers or entering a plea.

Leicestershire Police, the investigating force, condemned the decision as "perverse", and took the unusual step of saying they would look into legal avenues to overturn the decision.

The Labour party also responded swiftly by suspending the peer.

His family said he was "entirely innocent of any wrongdoing".

Amid growing public concern following a string of revelations about public figures, the Home Office has already ordered a wide-ranging inquiry into child sex abuse.

The most prominent cases involved the Australian entertainer Rolf Harris and the late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile, but there have been further suggestions that senior politicians helped to cover up a paedophile network linked to Westminster in the 1980s.

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>Ms Saunders said in a statement that Lord Janner had allegedly used his power as a Leicester MP to abuse vulnerable young boys at a local children's home in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. She said the accusations had been investigated by three police inquiries, and that both the Crown Prosecution Service and the police had been "wrong" not to have taken further action.

"Mistakes were made in the decision-making at the time by both the Leicestershire Police in 2002 and the CPS in 1991 and 2007," her statement said. "Lord Janner should have been prosecuted in relation to those complaints."

The detailed allegations include 14 indecent assaults on a male 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 counts of buggery between 1977 and 1988.

"It is a matter of deep regret that the decisions in relation to the previous investigations were as they were," said Ms Saunders. "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, with a jury ultimately deciding on his guilt or innocence some years ago."

Roger Bannister, assistant chief constable of Leicestershire, said he was "extremely worried" about the impact the decision not to prosecute would have on the victims, who came forward to report the alleged abuses.

He has now invited the Independent Police Complaints Commission to look into the earlier investigations. In the meantime, the force will consider what action it can take against the most recent CPS ruling.

"We are exploring what possible legal avenues there may be to challenge this decision, and victims themselves have a right to review under a CPS procedure," he said.

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