It has been claimed that a ‘magic circle’ of top legal figures may have protected the labour peer when he faced a police probe over an alleged child sex offence.
Scottish police are currently looking into new claims that Janner took a teenage boy with him to Scotland and sexually assaulted him during the 1970’s.
Senior personnel who were running the Scottish judicial and prosecution service at the time the complaint was made against Lord Janner were key figures in the so-called ‘magic circle’ scandal of the early 1990s. There are now cover-up fears over Janner’s link to those senior legal figures
BYPASS THE CENSORS
Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe any time. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use
The Mail Online reports:
It centred around claims that top Scottish judges, sheriffs and advocates had been compromised by gay liaisons. But this is now believed to have been a smokescreen for a paedophile ring operating in the heart of Edinburgh’s legal establishment – claims which are also under police investigation.
Police in Scotland have launched a probe into whether a complaint made against Lord Janner in 1991 was properly dealt with. It yesterday piled pressure on the Crown Prosecution Service in England to reconsider a decision not to charge him with other alleged child sex crimes, on the grounds he has dementia.
Lord Janner’s family have issued a statement insisting he is ‘entirely innocent of any wrongdoing’.
One of his alleged victims claimed the ex-MP took him to Scotland in the 1970s, and that during the trip he was subjected to serious sexual assaults. That alleged victim made a report at an Edinburgh police station in 1991. But the Crown Office – Scotland’s prosecution service – maintains that its officials did not receive a report about the claims.
The Mail revealed yesterday police in Scotland spent several weeks combing through archives and have now found documents relating to the case – sparking a renewed investigation.
Sir William Sutherland, 81, who was in charge of the now-defunct Lothian and Borders Police at that time of the Scottish inquiry, told the Mail last night that he could not recall the complaint, adding: ‘When I retired, that door was closed.’
Under Sir William’s command, the force was rocked by the ‘Fettesgate’ controversy, which saw a highly sensitive report on the magic circle scandal stolen from the force headquarters. Lord Janner, 86, has been told that if it were not for his illness, he would have been charged with 22 historical child sex offences.
Some of the central figures in charge of police and prosecution service at the time of the Lord Janner complaint in Scotland were to become mired in the ‘magic circle’ scandal.
Lord Rodger, later Scotland’s top judge, announced an inquiry into the magic circle allegations in 1992, after he had become Lord Advocate.
That inquiry ultimately found there was no evidence to support claims of a conspiracy in the justice system.
Niamh Harris
Be the first to comment