Greville Janner: Keith Vaz was among MPs who defended Labour peer against child sex abuse allegations

Keith Vaz, the senior Labour politician, was one of 16 MPs who publicly defended Greville Janner against child sex abuse allegations at a time when prosecutors now admit the peer should have faced trial.

Mr Vaz, who has chaired the Commons home affairs committee for the past eight years, said Lord Janner had been the victim of a “wicked attack” in 1991, when the allegations first surfaced, and campaigned for a change in the law to prevent any repeat.

The Crown Prosecution Service has now admitted a police investigation 24 years ago was the first of four occasions when Lord Janner would have faced trial but for “mistakes” that were made.

Alison Saunders, the Director of Public Prosecutions, today told nine alleged victims of the 86-year-old politician that a new police investigation had gathered enough evidence to charge him with 22 offences, but that he will never now stand trial because he has Alzheimer’s disease.

^{Greville Janner addressing a Westminster news conference in 1996 (PA)}

The decision was described as “a disgrace” by one alleged victim who claimed the former MP was “being protected” because of his VIP status.

Leicestershire Police, which traced 25 potential victims during a two-year investigation launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, said the CPS’s decision was “the wrong one” and the force is now taking legal advice on challenging it.

Greville Janner MP, as he was at the time, was interviewed by Leicestershire Police in 1991 after a former occupant of a children’s home accused him of abusing him for two years when he was aged between 13 and 15. The claims were made during the trial of another man who was later jailed for abusing more than 100 children.

The CPS decided at the time not to prosecute Janner, who claimed he had been the victim of a malicious smear.

Mr Vaz, currently the Labour candidate for Leicester East, said in 1991 that his friend had been “the victim of a cowardly and wicked attack by people who simply did not care what damage they did to him”.

He spoke in support of Lord Janner during a Commons debate on the laws of Contempt of Court, arguing that people accused of child abuse during court cases should be given the same right to anonymity as rape victims if they were not themselves on trial. Mr Vaz praised Lord Janner as a “great survivor”.

Lord Carlile, the former Lib Dem MP, praised Lord Janner’s “integrity” during the 1991 debate.

^{Alison Saunders}

Today Ms Saunders admitted there had been sufficient evidence to charge Janner in 1991, and that it had been a “mistake” not to put him on trial. She also said Leicestershire Police should have handed over a file on Janner following a second investigation in 2002, and that the CPS should have charged him following a third investigation in 2007.

She expressed “deep regret” that “wrong decisions” were taken, and has asked the retired judge Sir Richard Henriques to conduct an independent review into the case.

The latest investigation by Leicestershire Police, launched in 2013, had identified 25 possible victims, and amassed enough evidence to charge Lord Janner with 22 sex offences dating between 1969 and 1988 involving nine children and young people.

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But four doctors unanimously agreed that Lord Janner, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2009 and who now needs round the clock care, was not mentally capable of standing trial and so he will never now be prosecuted.

One alleged victim reacted with fury to the decision, saying in a statement through Leicestershire Police: “If he was an everyday person with a normal life and job, justice would [have] been served.”

He said the peer's alleged victims are “just being pushed to the ground again and walked over”.

^{Greville Janner speaking at a news conference about the fate of gold looted by Nazi Germany (Reuters)}

The decision also means Lord Janner and his family will never have a chance to clear his name after 24 years of allegations. His family said he was “entirely innocent of any wrongdoing”.

Lord Janner voted in the Lords 210 times between his Alzheimer’s diagnosis and the end of 2013, suggesting he might have been fit to stand trial if the authorities could have acted sooner.

Peter Saunders, founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: "I am not easily shocked, but I'm shocked at the catalogue of mistakes and errors and failings to launch a prosecution.

"I think many victims and survivors will be feeling terribly, terribly let down at the moment."

Roger Bannister, Assistant Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police, who has overseen the investigation, said the announcement would “do little to support and encourage victims of sexual abuse to come forward”.

He said: “There is credible evidence that this man carried out some of the most serious sexual crimes imaginable over three decades against children who were highly vulnerable and the majority of whom were in care.

“I am extremely worried about the impact the decision not to prosecute him will have on those people, and about the message this decision sends out to others who have suffered and are suffering sexual abuse.”

Labour said it had suspended Lord Janner from the party.

Janner was elevated to the Lords in 1997, when he was succeeded in his seat by Patricia Hewitt, who admitted last year that she had made "mistakes" and had been "naive" in allowing the notorioius Paedophile Information Exchange to be an affiliate of the National Council for Civil Liberties during her spell as its general secretary in the 1970s.