Dementia means peer Greville Janner won’t be tried over child sex claims

 
Accused: Lord Janner, 86, has dementia (Picture: Sean Dempsey/PA Wire)
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Britain's top prosecutor today spoke of her “deep regret” as a row broke out over her decision not to charge a Labour peer who has dementia despite evidence that he committed at least 25 child sex offences.

Alison Saunders, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said there was sufficient evidence to justify charging Greville Janner, 86, with crimes against boys ranging from indecent assault to buggery carried over a 20-year period up to 1988.

She said the peer, who served as a Labour MP from 1970 to 1997, should also have been charged after three other police investigations.

But Ms Saunders claimed it was no longer in the public interest to prosecute him as he was now suffering from such severe dementia that he would not be fit to stand trial.

Labour confirmed today it had suspended Lord Janner from the party “in the light of these very serious allegations”. It emerged that one Labour MP wrote to his party “months ago” calling for the peer’s suspension.

Simon Danczuk said he was “disappointed” by the DPP’s decision and praised Leicestershire police, who he said would feel “let down”.

Ms Saunders said there was no risk of the peer offending again and no treatment for his condition, but conceded that her decision would disappoint victims as she apologised for the previous failure to bring him to justice.

“It is a matter of deep regret that the decisions in relation to the previous investigations were as they were,” she said. “Victims of the alleged offences have been denied the opportunity of criminal proceedings in relation to the offences of which they have complained.”

Ms Saunders said that one police investigation begun in 2013 had uncovered evidence of 22 historical sex crimes. These included 14 indecent assaults on a male under 16 between 1969 and 1988, two other indecent assaults, and six counts of buggery, four of which involved boys.

Most of the nine alleged victims were from children’s homes in Leicestershire to which Lord Janner had gained access by using his role as a local MP.

Ms Saunders said three other police investigations, in 1991, 2002 and 2006, had culminated with prosecution decisions that there was insufficient evidence for charges, but this assessment had been wrong in each case.

Medical evidence from four experts meant, however, that it would not be in the public interest to charge the peer.

Ms Saunders said that it would also be impossible to obtain a hospital or supervision order against Lord Janner because there was no prospect of him recovering or offending again.

Leicestershire police assistant chief constable Roger Bannister said the decision not to charge Lord Janner was “the wrong one”. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood said the decision was “an outrage”.

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