Jewish Lord Faces British Child Sex Charges
Image by Getty Images
British prosecutors said on Monday an aging Jewish member of the House of Lords would now face criminal action over accusations of serious historical child sex crimes after they overturned an earlier decision following anger from alleged victims.
Lord Greville Janner, 86, a former Labour member of parliament and ex-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, is accused of more than 20 offenses on former residents of children’s homes in the 1970s and 1980s.
In April, Alison Saunders, Britain’s Director of Public Prosecutions said there was evidence to bring charges against Janner, who has always denied any wrongdoing, over 16 allegations of indecent assaults and six other counts.
But she said he was not fit to plead or give evidence because he was suffering from severe dementia and so a trial could not take place.
Britain is holding a wide-ranging inquiry into allegations of abuse by high-profile figures including politicians, several police investigations have begun and critics said the decision added to a perception that the establishment was closing ranks.
Six complainants asked for the matter to be reconsidered using a recently introduced scheme called the Victims’ Right to Review, which allows them to have their cases looked at again. That review concluded it was in the public interest for the case to go before the courts.
“I have always said that in my view this was an extremely difficult and borderline case because of the strong arguments on both sides,” Saunders said.
Allegations against Janner first arose in 1991 when he was named as having abused a teenage boy during a trial of a children’s home manager in Leicestershire, central England, who was jailed for abusing children.
Janner, who was the subject of three investigations between 1991 and 2007, denied the allegations in parliament, but Saunders said both the CPS and police had made mistakes in not acting against him sooner.
“It is a matter of real regret that prosecutions weren’t brought by the police and CPS in the past,” Saunders said.
She said the assumption would be that Janner would be found unfit to plead, and thus there would only be a “trial of the facts”, with the most likely outcome being an absolute discharge which was neither a punishment nor conviction.
Janner’s case has been listed for London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Aug. 7, and the CPS said it would be for the court to decide whether he should be excused on medical grounds from attending.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
