Israeli organisations and schools have begun to remove plaques bearing the name of Lord Janner after prosecutors said they would not charge the peer for child sex offences because he had dementia.
An Israeli nursery in the Galilee town of Ma’alot-Tarshiha took down the plague for the Lord Greville Janner Education Centre following allegations that the peer was a prolific child abuser, a report in Jewish News said.
The Labour peer will not face charges over child abuse allegations because he has dementia.
Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, said it is not in the public interest to charge the former MP as the “severity of his condition” means he is unable to stand trial. Had he been mentally fit, Janner would have been charged with a total of 22 child sex offences occurring between 1969 and 1988.
Leicester Police, who investigated allegations of child abuse at Leicestershire care homes between the 1960s and 1980s, described the decision as “the wrong one” as there is evidence Jenner committed the “most serious sexual crimes imaginable”.
Janner was previously investigated for child sex offences in the early 1990s, but police were told not to arrest or search the home of the MP.
Inaugurating the centre in 2012, Ma’alot-Tarshiha mayor, Shlomo Buhbut, praised the former Labour MP and amateur magician for “building bridges”, adding: “There is no better place in Israel than to have our kindergarten named for you.”
Lord Janner attended an unveiling ceremony along with Matthew Gould, Britain’s ambassador to Israel, and local dignitaries.
The Daily Telegraph reported that Daniel Taub, Israel’s envoy to London, wrote to Lord Janner that the school had been named after him “to mark our tremendous gratitude and appreciation for all you have achieved in the course of your long and devoted service to the Jewish state.”
Officials at the school have met to discuss changing its name.
Lord Janner’s family has said he is “completely innocent”.