The Jewish Chronicle

Abuse inquiry blasts police ‘failings’ over Janner

- BY ROSA DOHERTY

THE INDEPENDEN­T Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has said in a new report that police officers shut down investigat­ions into the former MP Lord Janner “without pursuing all inquiries”.

The inquiry also criticised the police over “a series of failings” when investigat­ing allegation­s of child abuse against the late Lord Janner.

However, Daniel Janner QC, who has long argued that the inquiry has been a “witch-hunt” against his father, told the JC: “Our late father’s innocence is unchalleng­ed in this report.

“It offers no proof whatsoever of guilt. He was himself the victim of institutio­nal failings because he was denied the ability (in court) while of sound mind prior to his dementia to defend himself and challenge the false allegation­s.

“The fact that all the civil claims made against his estate were withdrawn or discontinu­ed speaks for itself.”

But Professor Alexis Jay, chairman of the IICSA inquiry, said police and prosecutor­s appeared reluctant to fully investigat­e claims against Lord Janner despite “numerous serious allegation­s”.

She said: “On multiple occasions police put too little emphasis on looking for supporting evidence and shut down investigat­ions without pursuing all outstandin­g enquiries.

“This inquiry has brought up themes we are now extremely familiar with, such as deference to powerful individual­s, the barriers to reporting faced by children and the need for institutio­ns to have clear policies and procedures setting out how to respond to allegation­s of child sexual abuse.”

The inquiry, which was set up to examine whether public institutio­ns had failed to investigat­e child abuse, heard accounts from 33 complainan­ts, with allegation­s of abuse stretching across three decades.

Lord Janner died in 2015, suffering from acute dementia, but the IICSA decided to treat allegation­s against him as a separate strand of its overall inquiry.

In 1999, Leicesters­hire Police’s Operation Magnolia looked into allegation­s made against the politician.

The IICSA report found that the Leicesters­hire investigat­ion was “insufficie­nt” and seemingly involved a “deliberate decision” to withhold key witness statements from the Crown Prosecutio­n Service (CPS).

A CPS spokesman said about the latest IICSA findings: “The CPS has acknowledg­ed past failings in the way allegation­s made against Lord Janner were handled.

“It remains a matter of sincere regret that opportunit­ies were missed to put these allegation­s before a jury.”

Simon Cole, Chief Constable of Leicesters­hire Police, said: “On behalf of Leicesters­hire Police, I would like to reiterate the wholeheart­ed apology I gave in February 2020 to any complainan­t whose allegation­s during earlier police investigat­ions into Lord Janner were not responded to as they should have been. It is fair and correct to say that the allegation­s could and should have been investigat­ed more thoroughly.”

This report offers no proof of guilt

 ?? PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES ?? Lord Janner leaving a London court with his daughter in 2015
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES Lord Janner leaving a London court with his daughter in 2015

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