Janner’s letter to Jackson: I’m glad you were cleared

SUSPECTED paedophile Lord Janner wrote to Michael Jackson congratulating him on being cleared of child sex charges, it emerged yesterday.

The Labour peer, who has avoided prosecution over 22 child abuse allegations, sent the letter shortly after the singer was cleared by a US jury of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor.

Using personalised House of Lords notepaper, he wrote: ‘I was so very pleased at the news of your acquittal. What a terrible time you have endured.’

The pair met in June 2002 when Janner gave Jackson – accompanied by spoon bender Uri Geller and US illusionist David Blaine – a tour of the Houses of Parliament.

At the time critics said the visit threatened to undermine the credibility of Parliament because the pop star had previously faced allegations of abusing a teenage boy.

Months after his visit, US police and prosecutors opened a second child sex inquiry against Jackson, only for him to be cleared following a high-profile trial.

Janner sent the pop star the letter congratulating him a month after his acquittal and spoke warmly about their meetings. He wrote: ‘ You know how much I enjoyed and appreciated meeting you at the Universal Studios and in the UK – and especially on that wonderful day in Parliament and the journey to Exeter.

‘So I send you my very best wishes – and hope that you will return to London before long and that I should have the pleasure of seeing you once again before long.

‘So good luck and all best wishes. Yours ever, Greville.’

The former Labour MP passed the note to Jackson’s friend Mark Lester, who starred as Oliver Twist in the 1968 movie.

But Mr Lester never sent the letter to Jackson, who died in 2009 aged 50, and found it only during a recent clear-out of his home in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The 56-yearold osteopath said: ‘Janner knew I was friends with Michael. He gave me the letter and asked me to give it to him. I stuffed it in my pocket and never got round to it.

‘I stumbled across it while clearing my house. What he said was inappropriate. Michael Jackson was hounded for much of his life over these allegations and was then found not guilty.

‘No one should congratulate Michael on being cleared let alone a QC and peer. It’s as if he’s saying, “Well done, you got away with it”.’

Janner has been accused of abusing youngsters at care homes in Leicestershire between 1969 and 1988.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced in April there was enough evidence to charge him with 22 offences but ruled he should not face trial because of his Alzheimer’s.

Last week i t emerged that Scottish detectives have launched an investigation into allegations that the 86-year- old peer sexually abused a teenage boy.

The development will pile more pressure on the CPS over its decision not to bring charges against him because he has dementia.

The alleged victim claims Janner took him to Scotland in the 1970s and subjected him to serious sexual assaults when he was a boy.

Janner’s family insist he is ‘entirely innocent of any wrongdoing’.