Lord Janner sent ‘thank you’ card to detective after abuse probe was dropped
It emerged this week that Lord Janner sent a ‘thank you’ Christmas card to his investigating detective and offered to host him and his wife at Parliament, after the Labour peer learned he would not be charged.
Ret. Det. Insp. Kelvyn Ashby of Leicestershire Police said he was appalled by the handwritten note on official House of Lords paper. “I was extremely frustrated,” said Ashby in an interview this week. “Janner should have been arrested. He was treated differently because he was an MP.”
Since 1991 the 86-year old has been the subject of four separate investigations into child sex abuse, but was never charged. Janner’s family have issued a statement insisting he is “entirely innocent of any wrongdoing”.
Leicestershire Police confirmed that “several” new alleged victims have come forward since the Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders this month decided not to charge Janner, despite finding reason to.
She justified her decision on the grounds that Janner was unfit to stand trial, because he has dementia, but child abuse campaigners have cried foul, because Janner was signing off on official documentation earlier this month.
There has been cross-party condemnation at the DPP’s handling of the case, and this week NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless added his voice to calls for a review, saying it was “in the public interest to have a trial of the facts”.
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