Lord Janner: New Child Sex Abuse Claims Investigated By Scottish Police

Police in Scotland are reportedly  investigating claims that the  Labour peer Lord Janner abused a boy there in the 1970s.

Detectives are looking into claims that Janner took a teenage boy with him to Scotland and sexually assaulted him.

Officers investigating the historical complaint did not confirm a name. They will also look at whether he engineered a cover-up when police first received the complaint 24 years ago.

This new development will put more pressure on the Crown Prosecution Service  over its controversial decision not to bring charges against former Labour MP because he has dementia

The Mail Online reports:

The new police investigation is being carried out in Scotland, which has its own legal system, raising the possibility that the peer could still be prosecuted north of the border.

Janner, 86, stands accused of abusing vulnerable youngsters at care homes in his former Leicester constituency between 1969 and 1988.

The CPS announced in April that there was enough evidence to charge him with 22 historic child sex offences – but ruled he should not face trial because he is suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s disease.

But now detectives have launched an inquiry into claims that Janner took a boy with him to Scotland in the 1970s and subjected him to serious sexual assaults there. The alleged victim filed a complaint at an Edinburgh police station in 1991, but the Crown Office – Scotland’s prosecution service – maintains that its officials were never told about the allegations.

Police Scotland spent several weeks combing through archived files and have now found documents relating to the case, sparking the renewed investigation.

A police source said: ‘We have located the relevant files which show a complaint was made and now a live investigation is under way. We now have to look at this case applying 2015 policing principles to it – to ask whether, if the same allegations were made today, how would they be treated?

‘And was this claim investigated in the correct way, or in a way that would be acceptable today, back in 1991? If not, why not?’

It is understood police chiefs were surprised that the Crown Office moved so quickly to deny publicly that its officials had any record of the allegation from the time.

Detective Chief Superintendent Lesley Boal, of Police Scotland, told the Mail: ‘We are conducting an investigation into an historic complaint and, as such it, would be inappropriate to comment.

‘Police Scotland is absolutely committed to preventing all forms of child abuse and to keeping children safe while bringing perpetrators of abuse to justice, regardless of the passage of time.’ Last night the Crown Office said it had ‘not received a report in relation to this matter’.

Detectives in Scotland are now liaising with lawyers representing the man, who claims he was abused by Janner during the trip to Scotland, and keeping them informed of developments.