The police watchdog has asked the Crown Prosecution Service to consider bringing charges against an officer or staff member involved in the investigations into child abuse allegations against the late Lord Janner.
The Leicester Mercury reported the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) had investigated as many as 12 former officers over their handling of the allegations against the former Leicester MP, with the result that "one individual" was referred to the CPS.
In 2015, a few months before his death, the CPS stated that it would not be prosecuting Lord Janner despite the case having met their evidential test for prosecution, due to his advanced state of dementia.
Lord Janner’s family have consistently stated that all allegations against him were false and that he was entirely innocent of any wrongdoing. They pointed out in 2015, at the time of the CPS decision, its statement did “not mean or imply that any of the allegations that have been made are established or that Lord Janner is guilty of any offence."
In 2017, six of the men who alleged they had been abused by the late peer dropped their civil cases against his estate. Lord Janner’s three children responded by thanking “all those who stood by our family through this nightmare. The allegations against our late father were wholly unsubstantiated and an appalling injustice”.
However, an independent report in 2016 severely criticised both the CPS and Leicestershire police for mishandling investigations into Lord Janner in 1991, 2002 and 2007, saying that the peer should have faced prosecution at these points.
