Emily Thornberry with Sir Keir Starmer in 2017. Comments she made in 2012 surfaced. Photo: Heathcliff O'Malley
The Crown Prosecution Service, under Sir Keir Starmer, let down the victims of Jimmy Savile, as it turned out at the time, said Emily Thornberry. made the remark in 2012, when she was in the same role under Ed Miliband, in a recently released video.
The leader of the Labor Party attacked the public prosecutor, who was then under Sir Keir as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in Question Time, which aired on 25 October of that year.
Ms Thornberry said to the audience in the studio: “I am very disappointed with the Crown Prosecution Service for letting these victims down. When the evidence comes out, I'm really shocked that they didn't prosecute.
«It's being investigated by Crown Prosecution, it's a bit like the BBC doing its own investigation, or the Health Service doing its own investigation, or Broadmoor doing its own investigation.»
Emily Thornberry in 2012 on CPS Starmer's failure to prosecute Savile:
'I'm very disappointed at the Crown Prosecution Service for letting these victims down. When the evidence comes out, I'm really shocked that they didn't prosecute.» pic.twitter.com/RdfkCTx5dY
— j (@jrc1921) April 16, 2023
Sir Keir was DPP from 2009 to 2013, a period spanning the time during which the CPS was unable to prosecute Savile, who posthumously emerged as one of the UK's most prolific sex offenders.
Savile was questioned discreetly in 2009, after which the police contacted the CPS for clarification regarding the charges.
Sir Keir was not the lawyer in charge of these cases and said he was unaware of the failure of the prosecution. Savile until the artist's death in 2011. He then appointed Alison Levitt QC, his General Counsel, to examine the decisions.
After a damning report that found shortcomings on the part of the CPS and argued that she «should have tried to 'build' the prosecution Sir Keir criticized the way his organization handles cases and said its findings should represent a «tipping point».
A source close to Ms Thornberry said: «Of course, any sane person would agree with Keir Starmer that this case was not properly handled by the responsible team.»
«It is. it hardly seems disputed that Ms. Thornberry said so at the time and applauded Keir Starmer's decision to reconsider this case.»
Separate criticisms made by the shadow CPS Attorney General in 2010 and 2012 regarding the work of her colleague at the forefront has also surfaced in recent days.
'Urgent rethink' need
In September 2012, Ms Thornberry wrote to Sir Keir and Dominic Grieve, then Attorney General, demanding «an urgent review of the CPS's decision to relax the guidelines that specialist lawyers should deal with at every stage of a rape prosecution.» .
She added: “Rape supporters condemned it as apostasy. The legal process can be extremely traumatic for rape victims.”
Sir Keir was on the Sentencing Council in 2012 when it was decided that child sexual abuse should not be automatically sentenced to prison, although the maximum sentence is 14 years. was sent to jail.
A source close to Ms Thornberry noted that her statement, which is still available on her website, also criticized the coalition government's decision to cut the CPS budget by 25 percent during Parliament.
“This was a criticism of the impact of the cuts imposed by the Tory government on the CPS, and not a criticism of the CPS itself or Keir Starmer as a DPP,” the source insisted.
Last year, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson sparked outrage by accusing Sir Keir of «harassing journalists and failing to bring Jimmy Savile to justice.» He later explained that the leader the opposition «has no personal bearing on these decisions.»
The political dispute over Sir Keir's leadership of the CPS has resurfaced in the past two weeks following a series of attack commercials released by Labor that described Rishi Sunak as mild in crime and suggested he didn't want to jail child abusers.
Last week, an investigation by the Declassified website found that Sir Keir billed taxpayers nearly a quarter million pounds in his travel expenses during his four years in charge of the CPS, more than three times that of his successor.
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