text: Troubling questions: Lord Janner controversially escaped prosecution for a string of child abuse allegations because the Crown Prosecution Service said Alzheimer’s has left him unfit to face trial . A former Director of Public Prosecutions has said lawyers involved in the decision not to charge Lord Janner with child abuse in 2007 failed to pass new evidence to him. Lord Macdonald QC, who was DPP between 2003 and 2008, said that instead of consulting with headquarters in London, CPS lawyers in Leicestershire decided fresh evidence against Janner was not worth pursuing through the courts. That decision meant Janner, now 86, was able to escape prosecution for eight years until the CPS controversially announced earlier this week that he is now unfit to stand trial due to Alzheimer's. Speaking to The Guardian, Lord Macdonald said: 'It is a matter of great regret that I was never informed of the existence of this case in 2007. ‘If it had been referred to me, I would certainly have given it my close and robust personal attention. ‘The grave failure on the part of the local CPS lawyers to refer this case to headquarters is no doubt one of the matters that (High Court judge) Sir Richard Henriques will be looking at in his review of these cases.’ Alison Millar, head of the abuse team at law firm Leigh Day, who represented an alleged victim of Lord Janner, said: 'The main option now for those who allege they were abused by Lord Janner, to ensure their claims are investigated and for their voice to be heard, is through a civil legal claim. 'We are currently investigating the feasibility of such a legal challenge.' The news comes after it was revealed last night that Westminster attendance records show Janner attended the House of Lords almost daily and claimed more than £100,000 in expenses in the four years after he was diagnosed with the disease. He only stopped attending Parliament – and claiming up to £300 a day for doing so – when child abuse police raided his house on December 2013. Even in that month he attended the Lords 12 times. Lord Janner is said by his alleged victims to have preyed on young boys at care homes near his Leicester West constituency. On Thursday Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders said the peer would not be prosecuted because his condition means there could be no criminal conviction. She said there was evidence to charge Janner with 22 sexual offences against children carried out between 1969 and 1988, and that he should have been prosecuted in 1991, when Janner’s name was raised in a major paedophile trial, and again in 2007. Lord Macdonald QC, Director of Public Prosecutions from 2003 to 2008, said the decision not to prosecute Janner in 2007 was made by local CPS lawyers, and new evidence was not passed to him . Probes: Greville Janner, left in 1974, served as an MP for decades and was investigated in 1991, 2002 and 2007 . She went on to say that ‘mistakes were made’, and commissioned retired High Court judge, Sir Richard Henriques, to launch an inquiry. But her ruling means nine alleged victims will never have the chance to have their claims tested in court. And analysis of records shows Janner continued speaking fluently for years after his diagnosis and was also alert enough to claim expenses among the highest in the Lords. In the 12 months up to April 2009, the year of his diagnosis, he attended the Lords 143 times – only just shy of the 147 maximum possible. And he managed to fill in forms procuring himself £12,075 in subsistence payments and £13,468 in ‘office costs’ – with another £691 in mileage claims for his car. In the following year, up to April 2010, he attended 136 days at the Lords out of a maximum 142 and claimed £10,986 subsistence, £11,625 office costs and £589 mileage. In the year to April 2011 he turned up 126 days out of 137, and claimed expenses totalling £34,014. In the year to April 2012, Janner attended 143 days out of a maximum of 156. He also managed to claim a hefty £28,800 in expenses. In the following year, up to April 2013, he turned up 136 days out of 144, and claimed expenses totalling £24,600. In April, May and June 2013 he attended every one of the 30 days the Lords sat, claiming a total of £6,450 in expenses. In July he was absent just one out of 20 days, claiming £2,850 for the remaining 19. Pointing: Channel 4 News filmed Lord Jenner outside his house in London on July 8 2014, in what was is the most recent moving image of the Labour peer . And in August, September, October and November, he did not miss a single sitting out of 32 days, and claimed £4,800 in expenses. Yesterday David Cameron said: ‘I have enormous sympathy for anyone who has been the victim of crime or sexual abuse. ‘But it is a very important principle that decisions about prosecutions are taken by independent authorities and we have to be very careful not to step over the line, however frustrating it may sometimes feel that people aren’t getting the justice that they deserve.’ Claims that Janner was not fit to stand trial have been undermined by another case where a sex offender with dementia was brought to court. David Massingham, 77, was deemed not fit to stand trial on historic child abuse allegations because of his mental health but he was charged with 12 offences. He denied molesting two boys more than 30 years ago. A finding of fact hearing was held before a jury at Teesside Crown Court in February last year. The jury decided Massingham, of Middlesbrough, had committed the acts. He was not found to be guilty, or not guilty, but a judge ordered he be detained indefinitely in hospital. Peter Saunders, of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said the case proved what the authorities could have done over Janner. He said: ‘At the very least for the sake of victim survivors they should get that opportunity, to tell their truth before that kind of trial.’ A procedure exists to deal with criminal suspects thought to have mental illness. In serious cases where a judge rules a suspect is not fit to stand trial a jury can hear the evidence in the suspect’s absence and decide if the individual committed the crimes.
target: Labour grandee escaped prosecution for string of child abuse allegations .
  Lawyers have told of botched investigations in 1991, 2002 and 2007 .
  Former DPP said evidence in 2007 case was not passed to him for review .
  Branded decision by local CPS lawyers a 'grave failing' and a 'great regret'