Lord Janner inquiry: MP was 'found in hotel bed with teenage boy'

Lord Janner, who died in 2015, denied all charges against him

An inquiry has heard an ex-MP was found in a hotel bed with a teenage boy.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) is looking at the handling of allegations against former MP Greville Janner.

It heard police were approached in 2015 by a woman who used to work at a hotel where she said she walked into a room to find Lord Janner with a boy, before she "made her apologies and left".

Lord Janner, a Leicester MP for 27 years, denied all charges against him.

He was not prosecuted until 2015, shortly before he died, after a fourth Leicestershire Police investigation found sufficient evidence to charge him.

The IICSA hearing was told police seized diaries and non-sexual photos of children from Lord Janner's home in London.

An old wedding video, which showed Lord Janner with a boy from a children's home in Leicester, was traced but the inquiry heard the boy's complaint to the police had been dismissed more than 20 years earlier.

Lord Janner, pictured here in 1987, was a Leicester MP for 27 years

The inquiry heard Jim Roberts, a Labour county councillor in charge of social services in Leicestershire in the early 1990s, had tried to flag concerns about the MP to Labour officials, including the then party leader Neil Kinnock, but there was no formal pursuit of the allegations.

He said he still agreed with his statement to IICSA that Janner was a "devious, manipulative, self-serving politician".

"I saw him as a self-serving careerist MP who wasn't interested in Leicester or Leicestershire at all," he added.

Mr Roberts said he eventually stopped complaining because he was worried Lord Janner would sue him.

The Lord Janner case

• Lord Janner was the subject of child sex abuse allegations dating back to 1955.

• Three police investigations took place in the 1990s and 2000s, but no charges were brought.

• Following a fourth inquiry, he was charged in 2015 with offences against nine alleged victims. Police say 40 people accused him of abuse.

• The peer, who had dementia, was ruled unfit to plead, and died aged 87 before a trial of the facts could take place.

• An independent inquiry in 2016 found the three earlier investigations were "missed chances" to prosecute him.

• Nine of Lord Janner's accusers began the process of suing his estate for damages.

• Three dropped their cases in March 2017 and the remaining six two months later.

Former detective Kevin Yates said he felt complaints he dealt with back in 2001 were brushed under the carpet.

Mr Yates said that while working on an inquiry focussed on children's home workers, he received a statement from a boy accusing Lord Janner of abuse but the statement had been made more than a year-and-a-half earlier and did not appear to have been investigated.

He said he got the impression "the Janner allegation was put to one side and not actually progressed".

Mr Yates said he felt the lack of action was because Lord Janner was a local MP.

The family of the former Labour peer have always maintained his innocence.

His son, Daniel Janner QC, has been critical of the public inquiry and has previously threatened to launch a judicial review to shut it down, describing it as a "macabre proxy criminal trial".

He said: "This allegation was always challenged. Now my father is dead he cannot answer it back."

The inquiry continues.