The political pressure has escalated on the Director of Public Prosecution, Alison Saunders. Many ministers have questioned her decision of not prosecuting former Labour MP, Lord Greville Janner (86) on sex abuse charges, due to Janner suffering from Dementia.
Alison Saunders agreed that there is sufficient evidence to charge Janner with 22 offences of paedophilia, but ruled that it was not right to do so due to his mental health.
The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt expressed how he found it unusual that Lord Janner was able to sign an official letter addressed to the House of Lords authorities, received on 9th April 2015; however, he was pronounced as too unwell by Saunders to understand a criminal trial. Hunt Stated, “We all think that there is something very, very strange here where someone was signing official letters a matter of weeks ago and is somehow escaping prosecution for something so incredibly serious.”
The Care and Support Minister, Norman Lamb stated that prosecutors have previously failed to charge Lord Janner. The failure to do so demands that the case be “resolved by the courts”, rather than by Alison Saunders alone. He said, “My concern is that because the DPP and CPS [Crown Prosecution Services] have made errors in this case, heinous errors by failing to prosecute earlier when there was evidence there to do so, this matter should not be concluded by the DPP and should be brought to court.”
It is said that the Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling is also very disappointed with the way the Director of Public Prosecution has handled the case.
Furthermore, several senior politicians, included Labour's Simon Danczuk have called for Saunders to take back her decision of not prosecuting Janner.
The investigations on the serious sex crime allegations on Lord Janner were carried out by the Leicestershire police. They are considering a legal challenge to Alison Saunders' verdict that it would not be in the public interest to put him on trial due to his deteriorating health.
Four medical experts had examined Janner and agreed that it was unthinkable that he was bluffing to be ill.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said that although he had “some sympathy” with the Director of Public Prosecution, he found it “disgraceful” that Janner was not being tried when the authorities have ample evidence to bring serious charges. He further stated, “It may be that there is a way forward. It may be that Alison Saunders can think of some approach that would allow the facts of the case to be tested in some legal way without, as it were, putting Lord Janner on trial.”
Although there are serious allegations and evidence against Lord Janner, his family have expressed in a statement that he “is entirely innocent of any wrongdoing”.
