Lord Janner: the State-serving Goddard inquiry is an affront to justice
Lord Janner: a look at reporting on Lord Greville Janner in the media.
The Sun (Page 8): “Paedo probe judge to check Janner claims”
Claims of his innocence?
No.
There is to be an…inquiry into why Lord Janner was never tried in court. An inquiry is the country’s default position for anything the elite want to moralise on. A “panel” will investigate “whether the 86-year-old Labour peeer was protected by an establishment cover-up”.
This way the elite get to bury the ghosts and no-one gets hurt. It is a State-serving affront to justice.
Daily Express (page 2): “Sex abuse inquiry will review allegations against Lord Janner”
Will it be as big as the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking and tabloid journalism? Will everyone who has ever known or worked with Janner be put on the stand? Will we see all the social workers, police and everyone who worked with Frank Beck, the LibDem councillor and convicted paedophile who ran children’s homes and lived in Braunstone, where Janner is titular Lord? Will it be televised? Will there be dawn raids and mass arrests?
Going after the tabloid ‘scum’ was easy for the pious politicians who seek to control a free Press. Going after those in power is not their calling.
Lord Janner will be the only living public figure under scrutiny as part of an independent inquiry that was announced in 2014. Justice Lowell Goddard, a New Zealand High Court judge, has been appointed to spearhead the review.
The inquiry was announced by the Home Secretary in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal to look at cases involving public personalities whose alleged sex crimes emerge after their deaths.
It will hear from Lord Janner’s alleged victims and witnesses and could force the former Labour MP to give evidence as well.
Alleged victims get to talk. The elite get to show us and them that they are listening. You can trust us now. We’re not like them. That was all in the past. And we’re digging up the dead, like Sir Cyril Smith and Sir Jimmy Savile, and beating their bodies with sticks.
As for “forcing” Lord Janner to speak, to what effect? He has dementia. His testimony is deemed to be unreliable. You can force a man to attend but you cannot force him to talk sense.
The news was welcomed by his alleged victims who have requested a review of the Director of Public Prosecution’s ruling that he is not mentally fit to stand trial.
DPP Alison Saunders sparked outrage when she revealed that although there was enough evidence to charge him with 22 offences against nine victims, he will not stand trial because of his dementia. She also admitted he should have been charged with sex crimes on three previous occasions following investigations in 1991, 2002 and 2007.
Call the people who in 1991, 2002 and 2007 who did not put Janner in court. Call them all. Will they be called? Are they all dead and therefore bang to rights?
The decision to bring Lord Janner’s case into the inquiry was announced by Justice Goddard yesterday. The judge said the “depth of public concern surrounding the case” highlighted the need for an inquiry into historical failures by the authorities to protect children from abusers.
The public gets what the public wants.
Justice Goddard said:
“There is, in my view, a clear public interest in conducting an exhaustive and critical examination of the institutional decision-making processes in this case and in exposing them to public scrutiny. Given the prominence of this case, and the controversy that surrounds it, I am taking responsibility for leading this investigation.”
“Institutional decision-making processes”. What about the individuals? Don’t we subscribe to the view that we take personal responsibility for our action and inaction?
The Express adds:
The inquiry cannot find Lord Janner guilty but it can make “findings of fact”.
Lord Janenr is presumed innocent when the inquiry begins. He’s presumed innocent when it ends. You still unclear as to the point of this inquiry? It’s not about us. It’s about the State taking control and setting the agenda.
Lawyers for the alleged victims welcomed the news. Liz Dux of Slater and Gordon solicitors has written to Mrs Saunders demanding a review of her ruling.
She said: “This announcement shows the original failures to prosecute Janner are now finally being taken seriously. All my clients want is the opportunity to give their evidence and to be heard.”
We don’t know for certain that they were failures.
Peter Garsden, who is representing three men, said he still wants a criminal trial.
“My clients are outraged that after co-operating with a two-year police investigation… they will not now have their chance of justice through the courts,” he said. “They inevitably feel that there is one rule for peers and members of the Establishment and another rule for everyone else. They want the DPP’s decision reviewed in the hope that it will result in them being able to have their day in court, which is all they ever wanted.”
The Express adds, as it must:
Lord Janner’s family have said he is innocent of any wrongdoing.
The Leicester Mercury notes:
Announcing her review, Justice Goddard said she had requested all relevant documents from the Crown Prosecution Service, Leicestershire Police and other bodies, including the Home office and, it is understood, Leicestershire County Council. The council ran some of the care homes whose residents Lord Janner is alleged to have abused.
She said she would interview alleged victims who chose to take part, representatives of the CPS and police officers. Some of the hearings could be held in public and her conclusions published.
The inquiry is a self-serving exercise that could only benefit the State, which wants to assure the masses that the institutions in power are clean and clear. It’s not justice. It’s an exercise in reputation management…
Posted: 30th, April 2015 | In: Politicians, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
