Care home children who alleged MP sex abuse ‘let down by authorities’
CHILDREN who claimed they were sexually abused by the late Labour grandee Lord Janner were ‘let down by institutional failings’, a damning report has concluded.
There were ‘multiple failings’ in responses to abuse claims against the politician and children in the care of Leicestershire County Council were ‘not given the attention they deserved’, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse found.
Prof Alexis Jay, chair of the inquiry, said: ‘Despite numerous serious allegations against Lord Janner, police and prosecutors appeared reluctant to fully investigate the claims against him.
‘On multiple occasions police put too little emphasis on looking for supporting evidence and shut down investigations without pursuing all outstanding inquiries.’
She also said the council had a ‘sorry record of failures’ relating to abuse at children’s homes dating back to the 1960s. Lord Janner, an MP from 1970 until 1997 when he was made a peer, was charged with 22 counts of child sexual abuse, relating to nine boys, in 2015.
He died aged 87 with dementia later that year while awaiting trial.
He had denied the alleged abuse, said to have occurred in schools, at a London flat and in Parliament.
The inquiry did not examine whether the allegations were true.
More than 30 complainants were involved in the inquiry, with lawyers describing how poor children in care were on a ‘conveyor belt to abuse’.
Police and Leicestershire County Council apologised and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) acknowledged ‘past failings’.