Derry journalist co-writes book on Labour peer's role in abuse scandal

The role of former MP and peer Greville Janner in the alleged sexual abuse of boys is to be examined in a book on a notorious children's home scandal co-written by Derry-based journalist Paul Gosling.

‘Abuse of Trust’, by Mark D’Arcy and Paul Gosling, will be published by London-based Canbury Press next month.

The book deals with a regime of sexual abuse of children at Leicestershire care homes in the 1980s by council manager and former marine Frank Beck.

A chapter will deal with one of Beck’s alleged accomplices: Janner, an influential Labour politician who was MP for Leicester West between 1974 and 1997.

The book contains new material about Janner’s behaviour and the decades-long campaign to unmask him as a paedophile.

Its publication coincides with the beginning of public testimony to the independent Goddard inquiry into institutional child abuse. One of the 12 cases to be investigated by the New Zealand judge Dame Lowell Goddard is the Leicestershire children’s home scandal.

Janner died Baron Janner of Braunstone in December 2015 aged 87, while charged with 22 counts of the historical abuse of boys. He had been ruled unfit to stand trial in a criminal trial because of dementia.

A review by the Crown Prosecution Service in 2015 found that police and prosecutors had missed at least three chances to prosecute him.

‘Abuse of Trust: Frank Beck and the Leicestershire Children’s Home Scandal’ was first published in 1998. At the time of its publication, little could be reported about Janner, a prominent figure in the Labour Party who was made a peer by Tony Blair.

Paul Gosling, who wrote the new chapter on the Labour MP, said: “The original ‘Abuse of Trust’ book sold out several years ago. In recent years there has been a growing demand for the rare available copies of the book – to the extent that individual copies were being advertised at several hundred pounds.

“The serious child abuse allegations against Greville Janner meant there was substantial interest in the story around Frank Beck. But the demand for the book went far behind a desire to learn more about the proven evilness of Beck and the allegations against Janner, which this version of the book examines in detail.

Paul Gosling, who lives in Derry, says that, across the UK, there has been a recognition that it is only by examining child abuse cases that these “perverse criminalities can be prevented in future.”

‘Abuse of Trust’ will be published on August 12.