Janner child abuse inquiry ‘hampered by his high office’

THE police investigation into the child sexual abuse allegations faced by Lord Janner, the former Labour MP, was a “cover-up”, lawyers representing his alleged victims have said.

Lord Janner, who was made a peer by Tony Blair in 1997, died in 2015 under suspicion of 22 counts of child sexual abuse dating back to the Sixties.

Lawyers yesterday said Lord Janner enjoyed the “halo effect of high office” during a “culpably feeble and premat urely t erminated” i nvestigation launched by Leicestershire Police.

“This investigation has provided striking evidence of how wealth and social status insulated perpetrators of child sexual abuse from being brought to justice to the detriment of the victims of their alleged abuse,” William Chapman, representing numerous complainants, told the closing day of evidence at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

“Chair, you should call this what it is: a cover-up,” he added.

Nick Stanage, another lawyer appearing on behalf of the alleged victims, said: “The principle that all are equally subject to the law… did not guide police decisions on the gathering of evidence, analysis of evidence, or as to arrest or interview or search Lord Janner’s premi ses. The failings were not minor, but inexcusable”.

Lord Janner’s family strongly denies the allegations investigated by IICSA.

His son Daniel Janner QC, criticised the inquiry on Twitter, as a “proxy criminal trial of an innocent man”.