Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, said the Labour peer was a ‘serial child abuser’ and criticised the Crown Prosecution Service for not allowing the allegations to be aired in court
Labour peer Lord Janner of Braunstone is a “serial child abuser” who “violated, raped and tortured” children in the Houses of Parliament, an MP has said.
Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, said he was appalled that the Crown Prosecution Service had not allowed the allegations against Lord Janner to be heard in court.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Danczuk said: “The shocking thing is that the CPS admits that the witnesses are not unreliable, it admits that Janner should face prosecution but refuses to bring a case.
“I know the police are furious about this and rightly so. Anyone who has heard the accusations will be similarly outraged.”
Mr Danczuk was speaking in a Westminster Hall debate in the Houses of Parliament which gives him legal protection from being sued for libel.
He added: “I have met with Leicestershire police and discussed the allegations in some detail.
“Children being violated, raped and tortured, some in the very building in which we now sit.
“The official charges are 14 indecent assaults of a male under 16 between 1969 and 1988; two indecent assaults between 1984 and 1988; four counts of buggery of a male under 16 between 72 and 87, two counts of buggery between 1977 and 1988.
“My office has spoken to a number of the alleged victims and heard their stories. I cannot overstate the effect that this abuse has had on their lives.”
In April this year the CPS admitted Lord Janner, who as an MP for Leicester West was known as Greville Janner, should have faced multiple child sex abuse charges in 1991 and again in 2007, but said it would not be in the public interest to do so now as the 86-year-old was suffering from severe dementia.
Mr Danczuk told MPs that the case against the peer should still be heard. He said: “If Lord Janner really is too ill to face prosecution the why can’t the courts establish this, with a fitness to plead process?
“This would clear up doubts that still linger, for example why he was still visiting Parliament on official visits after he was declared unfit to face justice.
“If it is found that he is genuinely too ill to stand trial then why not conduct a ‘trial of the facts’ – this would allow the victims to tell their stories and gain some sense of justice.
“The DPP has said the trial of the facts would not be in the public interest – personally I fail to see how the knowledge that a peer of the realm is a serial child abuser is not in the public interest.”
Mr Danczuk added that it was important the charges against Lord Janner were heard in court if only to ensure that paedophiles knew they could not get away with their crimes.
He said: “The Director of Public Prosecutions has said that Lord Janner will not offend again.
“But the failure to prosecute Lord Janner offends every principle of justice – he may not abuse again but the legacy of the abuse continues. His victims needs the truth and they need to be heard.”
Lord Janner has previously denied all wrongdoing.
By Christopher Hope, Chief Political Correspondent, Telegraph.co.uk
