"Statements given by the two children against Lord Janner were locked away in a drawer at Market Harborough Police Station"

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What with being a carer and one thing and another, I am finding it harder to be all over the day's news. 

So only today am I blogging about the Independent Inquiry Into  Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) report on institutional responses to allegations of abuse against Greville Janner.

In his report on its publication, which appeared under a headline referring to "cheapskate botched and useless investigations", David Hencke wrote:

The national press and the BBC have rightly highlighted the failures of the police and the council to adequately investigate claims by survivors yet again in cases of historic child sexual abuse.

However it is in the mind blowing detail of the report that exposes how incompetent the police and council were in handling the investigations. It reveals a picture of quarrelling under resourced police officers, hiding of key evidence, and a difference of approach to investigations into a VIP figure, Lord Janner, from other less prominent people.

I was struck by the report's revelation that one of several re-examinations of the treatment of the accusation against Janner, in Hencke's words, found that:

The statements given by the two children against Lord Janner were locked away in a drawer at Market Harborough Police Station.

Those who sought complete openness about what was going on in Leicestershire's children's homes in the 1970s will have been disappointed in the IICSA's publication of its findings on Lord Janner.

The report begins by telling us:

In maintaining and upholding the complainants’ legal right to anonymity, this report is necessarily limited in what can be said publicly. The contents of this report do not therefore reflect the totality of the evidence we heard or include all our conclusions, which are set out in full in a longer report which we are not able to publish.

There may well be good reasons for taking those approach. But I have not forgotten that the press had to go to court in 1991 to be allowed to report the trial of  Frank Beck, who was found guilty of the most serious abuse of children in the homes he ran in the county.

Is Leicestershire right to be proud it has no children's homes?

You can read the opening statement made on behalf of Leicestershire County Council to the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse strand on Lord Janner on the IICSA website.

That is remarkable in itself, as the great majority of the proceedings in this strand have taken place in private.

If you do read it you will find that Alex Verdan QC listed this among the "key points" he asked the inquiry to note:

there are no longer any LCC-run care homes in Leicestershire. The last home closed in April 2018. The small number of residential placements are sourced through external providers after a rigorous commissioning process.

Listening to the live webcast, I was struck by the tone of voice in which he said it - as though it were self-evidently good news.

I wonder. 

Discussing the way the history of psychiatry in America is written, David J. Rothman once said:

It was apparent and unmistakable that the reforms of one generation became the scandals of the next. Historians had explored their materials with a curious myopia. First they applauded the reformers who designed the system, then they applauded the reformers who exposed the system, and then they applauded the reformers who designed a new system – and the circle moved round on itself.

There is a danger that this cycle will also operate in the treatment of children in public care. Whether because of the scandals of recent decades or because they are seen as too expensive, council-run children's homes are disappearing and care is increasingly being provided by the private sector.

Already there are signs that this is where the new scandals will occur. Martin Barrow tweets daily about the worrying things revealed by Ofsted inspections of this mutli-million pound industry whose rise taken place with remarkably little public debate.

I hope Leicestershire does choose its external providers after a "rigorous commissioning process," but I wonder if a better response to its shameful history would be to run good children's homes rather than give up the attempt altogether.

IICSA Janner hearings cast new light on abuse in Leicestershire children's homes

Abuse was rife in Leicestershire children's homes in the 1970s, but the powers that be have never been keen on public exposure of what went on.

The press had to go to court to be allowed to report the trial of Frank Beck, and the subsequent inquiry was conducted entirely in private.

A copy of the report of that inquiry was to be found on the county council website (as the result of a freedom of information request), but it seems to have disappeared.

But you can find a searchable copy of the report elsewhere on the web.

Because of this record of secrecy, there was a certain degree of cynicism expressed when it emerged that the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse would take most of its evidence on Lord Janner in private.

However, some evidence has been heard in public and something of interest has emerged.

BBC News reports:

On Monday, the inquiry heard that Ratcliffe Road children's home in Leicester burned all its records when a paedophile ex-employee was arrested.

Former senior policeman Mick Creedon, who ran the investigation, said he was "haunted" knowing runaways were sent to the home, described as a "hell-hole" and sexually abused.

That seems to me more significant than the stuff about Tony Blair and the honours system that leads the story.

Creedon also gave evidence about the investigation of possible offences by Lord Janner:

He also described being "disappointed" when refused permission to arrest MP Greville Janner.

The home was "immediately closed down" when they arrested a prime suspect, and a senior worker at the home "immediately burned all the files".

Mr Creedon said several people he spoke to for the investigation had killed themselves, and three former residents eventually said they were also abused by Lord Janner.

Mr Creedon told the inquiry he was refused permission to arrest the politician in the 1990s and instead of arresting the MP he was invited to Leicestershire Police's headquarters to be interviewed.

However, his home was not searched and he answered "no comment" to questions, so the case was dropped.

Mr Creedon denied going too easy on Lord Janner and said one account that questions were sent in advance "categorically didn't happen".

"I still think there was a justifiable case for his arrest," he said.

IICSA evidence on Lord Janner to be heard mainly in private

The hearings for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse's strand on the treatment of allegations against Lord Janner opened this morning.

They will investigate the the actions of police, prosecutors, Leicestershire County Council and the Labour Party.

Most of the inquiry's hearing are livestreamed on its website, but most of those for the Janner strand will be held in private. The Guardian says some journalists are being allowed to watch proceedings, but will be restricted in what they can report.

The inquiry is not designed to rule on Lord Janner's guilt or innocence, but I am reminded of the way that the press had to go to court in 1991 to win the right to report the trial of Frank Beck, who was convicted of abusing children in several county council homes in Leicestershire.

Hearings on Lord Janner put back until February 2020

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The Leicester Mercury reported earlier this month that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) will not now hold its public hearing into child sexual abuse allegations against the former Leicester MP Greville Janner until 2020.

This, says the IICSA, is because new lines of inquiry have emerged in the Independent Police Complaints Commission's investigation of Leicestershire Police's response to the allegations against Janner.

When the hearings do take place, the IICSA website reveals that they will investigate the allegations of Lord Janner and then, if it finds some or all of them to be well founded, consider:

• the adequacy and propriety of law enforcement investigations and prosecutorial decisions relating to allegations falling within paragraph 1 above, including whether any public authority hindered or prevented the effective investigation and/or prosecution of allegations of child sexual abuse by Lord Janner;
• the extent to which Leicestershire County Council was aware of the allegations of abuse and the adequacy of its response;
• the extent to which the Labour Party, government departments, and/or the security and intelligence agencies were aware of the allegations of abuse and, if so, the adequacy of their response;
• the extent to which any other public or private institution may have failed in its duty to protect children from sexual abuse;
• whether the Kirkwood inquiry was conducted adequately and whether the mission of any mention of Lord Janner in the Kirkwood report was appropriate.

In light of those investigations the Inquiry will publish a report setting out its findings and recommendations to improve child protection and safeguarding in England and Wales.

The IICSA is being largely ignored by the media, even though it has already led to the resignation of one council leader, but I suspect the hearings on Lord Janner will attract renewed attention.

The allegations against Greville Janner have been known for years

There has been a concerted attempt to make us think the allegations that Greville Janner abused children emerged only recently and from an apparently unreliable source.

The truth, as this BBC East Midlands report makes clear, is that they were first made public in the proceedings against Frank Beck in 1991 and were circulating locally before that.

Now read two journalists' memories of Greville Janner and the trial of Frank Beck.

Abuse of Trust: Frank Beck and the Leicestershire Children’s Homes Scandal by Mark D'Arcy and Paul Gosling

Abuse of Trust: Frank Beck and the Leicestershire Children’s Homes Scandal
Mark D'Arcy and Paul Gosling
Canbury Press, 2016

In 1991 Frank Beck was sentenced to five life-terms for sexual and physical assaults against more than one hundred children in his care while he worked for Leicestershire County Council. He was sentenced to a further 24 years on 17 charges of abuse, including rape.

Mark D’Arcy (now the BBC’s political correspondent) and Paul Gosling published the first edition of this book in 1998. Now it has been reissued with a significant extra chapter.

It begins:

Throughout the Frank Beck trail there was a shadow in the court – a man named by the defence and who much private speculation centred around. That was Greville Janner MP. Just as Janner was an elusive figure in the Beck trial, so, for legal reasons, he was only mentioned, almost in passing, in the original version of Abuse of Trust. Now more can be reported – and very much more is known.

They go on to detail the growing allegations against Janner. The first emerged during Beck’s trial: by the time his failing health put paid to a prosecution in 2015, 30 witnesses had accused him, of whom 12, regarded as the strongest potential witnesses, would have given evidence in court.

It also emerged that Janner was not telling the truth when told the Kirkwood inquiry into Beck’s crimes that he had never met him.

The allegations against Janner have been widely reported over the past couple of years, but in many ways this book’s reappearance is most welcome because it reminds us of Frank Beck’s crimes.

As I once blogged, the secrecy with which officialdom sought to surround first his trial and then the Kirkwood inquiry was extraordinary. The Beck trial was the first of several involving widespread abuse in children’s homes, so any historian of that episode will want to read it.

I have also read that Kirkwood’s report is now hard to obtain, though there was a copy in the library at the University of Leicester in the days when I haunted it. My strongest memory from reading it is the squalor in which the children lived and the low quality of the people, Beck included, who controlled there lives.

I can add today that my distinct impression when Beck was arrested was that no one was terribly surprised.

Later I worked with a woman who had hung out with a group of friends when she was a teenager. She said that the boys had all heard stories about the children’s homes Beck ran.

Unless we learn the lessons of cases like this, we shall go on being surprised by child abuse.

You can buy Abuse of Trust from Amazon UK or direct from Canbury Press.

Author of book on Leicestershire children's homes scandal will be in Leicester on Saturday

Paul Gosling, co-author of a book on Frank Beck and the Leicestershire children's home scandal, will be signing copies of the new edition at Waterstone's in Leicester on Saturday.

The Canbury Press website says he will also be available to talk to journalists and readers:

He will discuss why Beck got away with his behaviour for so long despite complaints from children and concerns to the council from co-workers. He will also broach the multiple allegations faced by [Greville] Janner, an MP in the city for 27 years.

Paul Gosling was a Labour councillor in Leicester between 1987 and 1991. His co-author, Mark D'Arcy, is the BBC's parliamentary correspondent,

I did buy a copy of the first edition of their book when it came out in 1998, but it no longer seems to be on my shelves.

Fortunately, I have just been offered a review copy of Abuse of Trust: Frank Beck and the Leicestershire Children's Home Scandal so I hope to write about it here soon.

IPCC takes action against 11 over Greville Janner case

This was posted on the Independent Police Complaints Commission website on Thursday:

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has served criminal and gross misconduct notices on 11 individuals as it continues to investigate Leicestershire Police’s handling of child sexual abuse allegations made against the late Greville Janner. 

The IPCC has decided not to name any subjects to ensure that the ongoing criminal investigation is not compromised.

Leicestershire sets aside £2m for the Greville Janner abuse inquiry

From the Leicester Mercury:

Leicestershire County Council has set aside £2 million to cover the cost of assisting the inquiry into Greville Janner's alleged sexual abuse of boys in its care. 

The authority ran the children's homes in the city and county, where the former Labour politician allegedly met, groomed and sexually assaulted boys. 

It believes the £2 million will cover the cost of legal representation and digging out documents and other relevant material from its past. 

It said the cash would also would cover the cost of supporting the welfare of alleged abuse victims. 

The council will give an account of its actions to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, (IICSA) later this year.

The inquiry may cast more light on the actions of the county council in the case of Frank Beck, with whose offences the allegations against Janner are intertwined.

Greville Janner was allowed to lie about the Kirkwood Inquiry

Lord Janner 'misled inquiry' over link with abuser Frank Beck

So runs the headline on a story on BBC News. I suppose it is a polite way of saying he lied to the Kirkwood Inquiry, which we already knew.

What is more remarkable, as revealed by documents from inquiry the BBC has obtained via a Freedom of Information request, is that Janner was permitted to lie about the inquiry:

The 1992 documents released to the BBC also reveal that, following his questioning by the inquiry, Lord Janner asked chairman Andrew Kirkwood if he could tell the media waiting outside that he had not been asked about allegations of child abuse against him. 

Andrew Kirkwood replied: "Of course, Mr Janner." 

Lord Janner left the hearing and told a BBC camera crew: "I have the chairman's permission to tell you that there was questioning about the social services and their operation, and none whatever concerning the allegations made against me." 

The documents show this was not true, and the revelation that the real substance of the inquiry's questioning was withheld from the media will further fuel allegations of a cover-up.

Indeed it will. As I blogged last year, the authorities were remarkably keen that the public should know as little as possible about Frank Beck's offences and the inquiry into them afterwards.

Press cutting from Spotlight on Abuse.

A witness statement by a victim of Greville Janner

Only a few months ago the press was finding conspiracies of powerful child abusers under every stone.

Now, judging by the headlines about Lord Bramall and John Inman, the same papers are incensed if the rich and famous are even investigated.

The truth, no doubt, is somewhere in between.

So to remind ourselves that such people can be guilty of such offences, let's look at one of the witness statements alleging abuse by Greville Janner.

It was reproduced in the Daily Mail and on The Needle in April 2015 and begins:

From my earliest childhood I never knew my parents and believe that I was in the care of the Leicestershire Local Authority from when I was about two weeks of age. I recall that I was fostered by a family called Wilkinson ... until I was about seven years of age when I went to live at The Cottage Homes at Countesthorpe, which was a Local Authority owned establishment.

Report on the handling of allegations against Greville Janner

The independent inquiry into the handling of allegations made against Greville Janner which was commissioned last year by the Director of Public Prosecutions issued its report today.

That inquiry was conducted by the retired High Court Judge Sir Richard Henriques.

You can download the full report from the Crown Prosecution Service website, and the Guardian has a summary of his its findings:

The report found:

• The decision not to charge Janner in 1991 was wrong because there was enough evidence against him to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for offences of indecent assault and buggery. In addition, the police investigation was inadequate and no charging decision should have been taken by the CPS until the police had undertaken further inquiries. 

• In 2002, allegations against Janner were not supplied by the police to the CPS and so no prosecution was possible. This merits investigation by the IPCC. 

• There was sufficient evidence to prosecute Janner in 2007 for indecent assault and buggery. He should have been arrested and interviewed and his home searched.

The evidence of the first complainant against Janner, who gave evidence in the trial of Frank Beck in 1991, is particularly strong.

The Guardian says:

These allegations related to 1975 when, it was alleged, the young boy from a children’s home met Janner after the then MP performed magic tricks. 

The alleged victim, known as Complainant One, said he was quickly befriended by Janner and was sexually abused and raped repeatedly. The complainant went to a wedding with the peer’s family, it was alleged, and it was only two decades later in 2014 that a subsequent police investigation found there was film footage of Complainant One at the event. 

According to the report, the prosecuting authorities discussed the possibility of arresting and interviewing the complainant in relation to charges of perverting the course of justice.

ITV News interviewed Bernard Greaves, who was part of Beck's defence team, about the case this evening.

BBC Inside Out East Midlands on Lord Janner

The first segment of this evening's Inside Out for the East Midlands concerned the allegations against Lord Janner.

I don't think it told us anything new, but it did remind us how longstanding the concerns about him were and how many chances to prosecute him were missed.

Anyway, well done to the BBC for showing it.

The other segments include dirty food outlets in Leicester and the threat to the historic mills at Belper.

An appeal against conviction by a dead child abuser from Leicester

Just before Christmas, following the death of Greville Janner, I wrote:

Trying a dead man is surely an absurdity out of the Middle Ages.

Yet things are seldom that clear cut in the law. A trial of facts for an MP who was unfit to plead sounded a fanciful idea, but it turned out that one had taken place as recently as 2012.

Now I have found that in 2002 a dead child abuser from Leicester appealed against his conviction.

The abuser was Father Michael Ingram from Holy Cross Priory, which is shown in the photo above.

Spotlight on Abuse says of him:

For several decades, Ingram had been an open advocate of sex between adults and children, but this had not resulted in his expulsion from the priesthood. 

He also claimed to be an expert on child development and child sexuality, and had written a number of essays on the subject for academic journals which cited highly dubious ‘research’ which minimised the effects of child sexual abuse.

In 2002 Ingram was tried for sexually assaulting and raping six boys on weekend trips to the Leicestershire countryside and camping holidays to the Isle of Wight.

Shortly before the jury retired, in an apparent suicide attempt, he drove his car into a wall.

What happened next is described at the start of his appeal judgment by Mr Justice Leveson, which is reproduced by Cathy Fox Blog:

On the basis that all remained was the summing-up the trial continued. In the event he was convicted upon each count. Prior to sentence, however, unfortunately Father Ingram died. 

Relying on section 44A of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968, by leave of the single judge, his sister now pursues this appeal. For ease of reference, we shall continue to refer to Father Ingram as the appellant.

Leveson dismissed the appeal,

If an appeal can be pursued on behalf of a dead man, is quite so absurd to try a dead man? The fact that, like Janner, Ingram came from Leicester adds piquancy to the parallel.

The allegations against Greville Janner

What do to about Greville Janner?

Trying a dead man is surely an absurdity out of the Middle Ages, yet handing the affair over to Justice Lowell Goddard's general inquiry risks seems an inadequate response.

Could a separate, immediate inquiry be held in Leicester?

As to what the allegations are, there is a story in The Times today (and thus behind its paywall) under the headline 'Justice evaded by man with influential friends':

Had the case gone ahead, the court would have heard evidence that Lord Janner sometimes groomed boys for "relationships" and on other occasions acted opportunistically to grope and indecently assault teenagers. 

The alleged offences took place primarily in Leicestershire, when Lord Jenner was driven by his parliamentary interns to his constituency from London, where he preferred to spend most of his time. 

The Times is aware, however, that allegations have also been made concerning assaults on children at the Oasis swimming pool in central London. 

Former interns said that he had little interest in constituency work. One former intern gave evidence that the long drives to Leicester sometimes involved stops at particular children's homes and at service stations. 

That account links with evidence from one of the alleged victims, Hamish Baillie, who says that the MP first approached him when he was playing arcade games at Leicester Forest East service station in 1983. 

Mr Baillie believe that Janner was told his name and where to find him by Frank Beck, manager of the care home where he was a resident for nine months.

The Needle blog adds:

Sources familiar with the ‘trial of the facts’ had told The Needle that about 100 witnesses were due to give evidence against Janner and that the evidence was overwhelming.

Other posts about Greville Janner on this blog include:

• Memories of Greville Janner and the trial of Frank Beck
• Keith Vaz and Greville Janner

Greviile Janner is unfit to stand trial

From the Guardian website this morning:

Lord Janner has been formally found unfit to stand trial regarding a string of historical sexual offences at a hearing at the Old Bailey. 

The peer and former Labour MP is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, which is incurable, severe and has left him unable to participate in a trial, four experts who have examined him have agreed. 

The decision on Monday means that there will not be a full criminal trial to hear the claims against Janner, which span three decades. 

Instead, he is expected to face a “trial of the facts”, where the jury is asked to decide – on the basis of evidence adduced by prosecution lawyers and by lawyers who put the case for the defence – whether or not the accused did the acts he or she was charged with.

Such a trial of facts may sound an unusual procedure to the layperson but, as I pointed out in April, it is not that rare.

And a trial of the facts in the case of an MP who is unfit to plead too place as recently as 2012.

Later. Read Mr Justice Openshaw's full judgment (PDF).

Greville Janner's alleged victims may claim £2.5m in damages

From the Leicester Mercury:

Six men who say they were sexually abused by former Leicester MP Greville Janner are expected to submit a claim for up to £2.5 million in damages. 

Lawyers acting for the men, who claim the 87-year-old committed the offences against them decades ago, indicated the scale of their potential damages claim at the High Court in London on Tuesday. 

Details of the claim are to be formally served on Lord Janner's legal team, which must happen before the end of November. 

Lord Janner, who was MP for Leicester West for 27 years from 1970, is accused of 15 counts of indecent assault and seven counts of other sexual offences against a total of nine complainants.

The report also reminds us of the current state of play in the Crown prosecution of Lord Janner:

A judge ruled in September that Lord Janner would be put on trial next year for alleged historical child sexual abuse. 

That hearing is scheduled to take place on Monday, February 22. 

The peer is said to suffer from severe dementia and the early symptoms of Parkinson's disease. 

A hearing to assess whether he is fit to stand trial is due to take place on Monday, December 7. 

If that hearing decides he is unfit to stand trial, a court might conduct a "trial of the facts". 

That would mean a jury would hear evidence from alleged victims and decide whether he committed the abuse, although there would be no finding of guilt or a conviction. 

In total, the peer faces 22 allegations of sexual offences against nine boys and men between 1963 and 1988. 

He has not entered pleas to any of the allegations.

A trial of facts when a former MP is unfit to plead

If you think the idea that Greville Janner should face a trial of facts if he is unfit to plead is fanciful, you may be surprised to learn that a former MP faced just such a trial very recently.

As Ian Pace reminds us:

In 2012, the former Labour MP for Luton South Margaret Moran faced 21 charges of false accounting and forgery of parliamentary expenses involving sums of over £60,000. However, following a psychiatrist’s report, Moran was found to be suffering from a depressive illness, with extreme anxiety and agitation, and as such was unfit to stand trial. Nonetheless, a trial went ahead in her absence (a so-called ‘trial of the facts’) and it was found that she did indeed falsely claim more than £53,000.

Police investigating Greville Janner seized film and videos

From today's Leicester Mercury:

Leicestershire Police has made its first move in its legal bid to overturn a decision to not put Greville Janner on trial for alleged sexual abuse of children. 

The force today wrote to the director of public prosecutions, (DPP), – who last month ruled out taking action against the 86-year-old peer because of his ill-health – to explain why it believes the allegations should be tested in court. 

The DPP, Alison Saunders, has 14 days to respond to the force's submission and to say whether she intends to reverse or stick by her decision. 

In a statement issued this morning, the force said: "Subject to her response, the force reserves its right to seek a judicial review of the decision.

The report goes on to give details of the investigation of the allegations against Greville Janner (which he and his family deny):

Last month, Leicestershire Police revealed it had launched an investigation, codenamed Operation Enamel, in 2013 and traced 25 people who allege that they were sexually abused by the former Labour MP for Leicester West as long ago as 1970. 

Officers spoke to more than 2,000 people and took 442 statements. 

About 600 items seized as part of the investigation included cine film and videos, police said.