Lawyers for six men who made claims against late Labour peer say they will work with national child abuse inquiry instead
Greville Janner was facing a trial of facts on sexual offences dating back to the 1960s
at the time of his death in 2015. Photograph: Reuters
Haroon Siddique
Legal proceedings against Greville Janner have ended after six men dropped their civil claim of child sexual abuse against the late Labour peer.
The claimants’ lawyers, Slater and Gordon, said the case was likely to have been difficult to win because of the historical nature of the claims and they would instead focus on working with the national child abuse inquiry.
Janner’s son Daniel, a QC, previously threatened legal action to prevent the allegations against his father being included in the the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. But Richard Scorer, specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon, said the firm had been given reassurance that they would be heard.
“With the civil cases, we knew that we would have a fight on our hands in achieving this because the civil action was launched so long after their alleged abuse,” he said.
“But we recognised how important it was for our clients to take this action after the failure of four separate criminal investigations."
“After a period of uncertainty regarding the inquiry, our clients have now received categorical assurances from Baroness Jay [the inquiry chair] that she will hear the allegations of abuse by the late Lord Janner as part of her wide-reaching inquiry, and that the actions of the various agencies involved will be scrutinised in detail."
“As a result, our clients will focus their efforts on working with the inquiry to discover the truth of what really happened rather than continue to fight the civil cases against Janner’s estate, which are at risk of being ruled out of time.”
Allegations against Janner first emerged publicly in 1991, but no action was taken. In 2015, the Crown Prosecution Service concluded that there was enough evidence to merit prosecution but it deemed such a prosecution not in the public interest because Janner was suffering from dementia. This decision was overturned on review and a trial of the facts, on 22 sexual offences dating back to the 1960s against nine boys and men, was scheduled for April 2016. However, this process was halted by Janner’s death in December 2015, aged 87.
Prosecutors initially suggested the trial could go ahead posthumously but subsequently said they would not pursue the case.
In a joint statement given to the Sunday Times by Janner’s three children, Daniel, 60, Laura, 53, and Marion, 57, they said: “We want to thank all those who stood by our family through this nightmare. The allegations against our late father were wholly unsubstantiated and an appalling injustice.
“Although our beloved father never lived to see the claimants abandon each and every one of their claims, we now have the peace of mind that our father’s reputation as a man who devoted his life to good has been restored.”
They said one of the reasons they had wanted the allegations against their father removed from the scope of the inquiry was that its terms would not allow for witnesses to be cross-examined by the family’s lawyers.
