Lord Janner will stand trial over alleged historical child sex abuses, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced.
The decision overturns a
previous ruling which saw the 89-year-old peer exempt from
criminal proceedings due to the onset of Alzheimer’s
disease.
In a statement, the CPS confirmed the Director of Public
Prosecutions (DDP) Alison Saunders would pursue “criminal
proceedings against Greville Janner for child sex offences.”
The decision to reverse Janner’s immunity came through the
“recently introduced” Victim’s Right to Review scheme
“which allows victims to have their cases looked at again, no
matter who in the CPS made the original decision not to
prosecute.”
READ MORE: Janner ‘violated, raped
tortured’ children on Westminster Palace estate, MP alleges
Janner is expected to stand trial on August 7 at Westminster
Magistrate’s Court.
This trial will mark the first time Janner has faced any criminal
proceedings for the 22 alleged offences which took place between
1969 and 1988.
The total charges against the peer include 14 indecent assaults
on a male under the age of 16, four counts of gross indecency
with a male under the age of 16, two counts of indecency and two
further counts of gross indecency.
He was suspended in 1997 after the CPS produced evidence against
him.
Victims of the alleged offences said they received letters on
Saturday notifying them that Janner would stand trial.
The Lord Janner scandal grows daily more toxic. @SimonDanczuk is one of
the few parliamentarians worthy of the name
— George Galloway (@georgegalloway) June
23, 2015
“It shouldn’t have taken this long – 45 years for some – to
get to this point. Saunders should go because she has tried to
stop the truth from coming out,” one alleged victim, who
asked to remain anonymous, said.
MP Simon Danczuk, who previously used parliamentary privilege to
call for Janner’s prosecution, said Saunders should step down
after it was revealed the decision not to prosecute had been
reversed.
It is an indictment of our system that it took so long, but a
step forward that Lord #Janner will
face trial.
— Natalie Bennett (@natalieben) June
29, 2015
“All suggestions are that Saunders reached the wrong
conclusion in April and this is not the first time she has made a
major mistake,” he said. “She has struggled in some of
her decisions to pursue journalists through the courts, too. Her
job is all about judgment,” he said on Friday.
The statement from the CPS however, adds that while Janner will
stand trial, he is unlikely to be found fit to enter a plea,
meaning he would be unable to challenge or give evidence during a
trial.
“Therefore the most likely outcome of a ‘trial of the facts’
would be an absolute discharge, which is neither punishment nor
conviction,” it said.