We know about ex-CEOs suing their former employers, but Guido can’t say that there are many cases of current CEOs suing their current employer. Something strange has clearly been going on in the corridors of the Crown Prosecution Service over in Petty France as CEO Rebecca Lawrence takes the CPS itself to a tribunal on grounds of age and sex discrimination. Lawrence only joined in late 2019 after previous head Paul Staff ended his 28-year stint. Is this a gambit for a pay rise or some kind of warning shot?
The Law Society Gazette is reporting the tribunal will begin work tomorrow after a reading day today. The CPS doesn’t often find itself on the defensive…
Starmer has repeatedly taken personal credit at the despatch box for prosecuting criminals during his tenure at the Crown Prosecution Service. He quite cynically wants to take the credit for the successes, yet we are now expected to accept he isn’t responsible for the failures. Here he is taking personal responsibility, something he now says is a “slur”.
Hat-tip: Molly Giles
See also: Starmer’s CPS Boast: “When They Made Mistakes I Carried the Can”
As Starmer attempts to disclaim any responsibility for the failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile, this morning Guido asked whether he’d similarly refused to take credit for CPS victories in which he played no part as DPP. New footage unearthed this afternoon however shows Starmer boasting during the Labour leadership election about carrying the can when his team dropped the ball:
“Hear me out: I had 8,000 staff for five years as the director of public prosecutions. And I acted, I hope, in the right way with them, which is when they had victories I celebrated victories on their behalf, I picked up awards on their behalves. When they made mistakes, I carried the can. I never turn on my staff and you should never turn on your staff… I will carry the can for mistakes of any organisation I lead.”
Now it seems Starmer is not only passing the buck onto his former staff in the CPS for the failure to prosecute Savile, he’s accusing anyone of saying as Director of Public Prosecutions he carried the can for the mistakes of the organisation he led, of being “far right”. A claim the video shows he himself first made.
He didn’t just emphasise his total control and responsibility over the CPS during his leadership campaign. To this day his profile on the Doughty Street Chambers website reads:
“As DPP, Keir was responsible for all criminal prosecutions in England and Wales.”
Once again, we’re now supposed to pretend Sir Keir has no questions to answer, nor any responsibility to shoulder, over the Savile handling by the CPS. It seems to look bang to rights, m’lud…
Biggest development in the Worboys story yet. Lawyers for the black cab rapist’s victims have written to the Crown Prosecution Service formally asking them to reassess 93 unprosecuted cases against him. Lawyers from Slater and Gordon and Birnberg Pierce wrote:
“As you would expect, our clients were shocked and dismayed to learn of Worboys’ imminent release. The decision of the Parole Board, the manner it was communicated to victims (most found out through the media), and the seeming failure to put in place proper measures to protect victims following his release are all matters of grave concern to our clients; we are raising these matters with the appropriate authorities.
However the purpose of this letter is to formally request that the CPS undertake a thorough review of all available evidence against Worboys to determine whether he can be prosecuted in respect of further offences.
Worboys was only prosecuted in respect of a small fraction of the allegations against him: 12 complainants out of some 105 in total whom, we understand made complaints to the police.
It is understood that the intention was that ‘the indictment was not overloaded and that the case was as simple as it could be to present to a jury’. In the course of the trial an additional four allegations emerged which were linked to Worboys. Furthermore, in the wake of media observations following the conviction an additional 45 incidents were reported of which 18 were linked to Worboys. The total number of allegations linked to Worboys upon the closure of the investigation was 105.
Victims were told Worboys would “not be coming out for a long time” and, as a result, it was not necessary to prosecute the serial rapist with another trial. To the extent that this was the CPS’s expectation at the time, this has clearly not happened and this justification for not bringing further prosecutions has fallen away. We therefore formally request that the CPS make a public commitment to reconsidering the evidence in all Worboys cases with a view to further prosecution.”
These cases against Worboys were not dropped for lack of evidence, but rather “in the public interest” because they thought he would never be coming out. Ball now in the CPS’s court to seek justice for those women who never had their day in court, and keep the public safe from Worboys once and for all…
Keir Starmer is still refusing to comment on his decision not to prosecute John Worboys for 75 further sex assaults. It falls to Guido to point out how extraordinary it is that a man with such a dire record as Director of Public Prosecutions is talked about as one of Labour’s best talents. The below could have ended his career several times over.
- Decided not to prosecute John Worboys for 75 sex assaults
- Yet spent four years failing to prosecute 23 Sun journalists
- Insisted on prosecuting Paul Chambers for making a light-hearted joke on social media (the infamous Twitter joke trial)
- Failed to build a case against Jimmy Savile and forced to apologise after being damned by report into failings
- Repeatedly championed the innocence of convicted murder who later admitted that he was actually guilty
- Failed to prosecute police officer who killed newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson
- Ordered the CPS in Wales to drop the prosecution of a primary school teacher who had been accused of sexting a 16 year old boy, who went on to commit suicide
- Damning report into Starmer’s tenure at the CPS showed it was performing well below the necessary standard, with the report attributing part of the blame to a ‘overload of initiatives’ from the CPS’ national leadership
- Survey of CPS staff found that just 12% of them thought that the organisation was being well managed under Starmer’s leadership
- Accused of reopening a spurious sex abuse case involving a friend of Tom Watson – the accused was cleared in an hour
- Chose not to prosecute two doctors accused of carrying out abortions on grounds of gender
How long before he has to break his silence?
