BY BEN KERRIGAN
Fresh pressure is being mounted on the director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, after it emerged that she worked in the same chambers as Lord Janner- the MP who escaped prosecution because he apparently suffers from dementia. Alison Saunders let Janner off the hook but subsequently admitted that dementia is ‘not a bar’ for prosecuting someone for sexual abuse. The deciding factor in cases where the defendant suffers from dementia is whether they pose an ‘ongoing risk’ to the safety of the public, on which her conclusion was that the disgraced MP poses no such risk. The retired Judge who reviewed past errors that prevented Lord Janner from being prosecuted was also a close friend of the senior barrister hired to defend the peer against abuse claims.
Police were also told over 20 years ago that Lord Janner took a vulnerable boy to Labour party offices and parliament where he went on to molest him at his Leicester home. Mrs Saunders career began at 1 Garden Court chambers in 1983, when Lord Janner was already a leading QC there and therefore deemed to have most likely moved in similar circles as Lord Janner. Calls for an independent examination of Mrs Saunder’s decision not to bring charges against Lord Janner are in abundance, and the likelihood of such independent assessment is now very high.
Lord Greville Janner met his victim during a visit of a secondary school in his Leicester constituency and groomed the teenager who had been in care ever since he was a child. Under the freedom of information, eye of media as well as a number of media outlets obtained a copy of the statement given by the father of 3 children- a teenager at the time of the alleged attacks. In it, the grown man recalls finding himself in the house of a stranger, a long way from the children’s institution he had grown accustomed to.
”He sat on my bed and asked me if I was alright. I told him that I was frightened because I was in a strange house, and at this he cuddled and kissed me….and said that I could sleep in his bed if I wanted to”. The boy does not explain is why he did not ask to be taken back to the environment he was familiar with at the children’s institution since at 14 we expect him to be competent enough to express his feelings or concerns. ”He took off his dressing gown and I saw that he was wearing boxer type shorts. We got into his double bed together. He again cuddled me and said that if I was warm, I could take my pyjamas off, which I did”.
The boy proceeds to explain in graphic detail what follows next. ”He touched my penis and asked me to touch his”. The statement fails to inform whether the boy granted the perverse Mp’s request to have his penis touched. He then simulated sex with me as I could feel his penis rubbing against my body, but after a while he got up from the bed and went out of the room. I must have fallen asleep, because when I woke up it was morning”. He then recalls being repeatedly driven by Janner’s driver and taken to dine at the House of Commons. Lord Janner also took him to the homes of his affluent friends where they would swim together.
”On other occasions we went to the address of the friends of his family and we all swam in the pool. Sexual activity took place between Mr Janner and myself and we touched each other’s private parts whilst in the swimming pool. The extent of the abuse by a high profile politician is so horrendous. The idea that there are several other MP’s out there guilty of even worse offences is scary. All references to the politician were removed from the child’s social services file. This means that top people in high places knew of this offence but lacked the moral courage to do the right thing. Alison Saunders must sort it out or go!
