Sir Keir Starmer’s team intervened to drop court case against a teacher accused of sexting schoolboy
SIR Keir Starmer’s office intervened to drop a court case against a teacher accused of sexting a schoolboy when he was Director of Public Prosecutions.
The revelation comes as the Labour leader faces a furious backlash over social media ads accusing Rishi Sunak of letting sex offenders walk free.
Tory MPs accused Sir Keir of being a “hypocrite” and trying to cover up his own track record of being “Sir Softie” when it comes to fighting crime.
In 2013, a primary school teacher was standing trial for sending sexually explicit texts to a 16-year-old.
The case was dropped after the senior legal adviser to then Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Keir ordered the CPS in Wales to ditch it.
Prosecutor Julie Hughes told Llanberis magistrates court: “This was a sensitive case, which was reviewed carefully at the highest level, and the area CPS was satisfied both the evidential and public interest criteria had been met.
“However, the principal legal adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions has taken a different view.”
Speaking at the time, the teenager’s mum said she was “disgusted” by the decision.
Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith said: “This case raises serious questions about just how ‘tough on crime’ Sir Keir Starmer was as Director of Public Prosecutions.
“Sir Keir is a hypocrite. How many more grubby cases about his own record are out there?”
A Labour source said this was not a case Sir Keir could remember being involved in and there could have been any number of reasons why it was dropped.
It came as Labour released their third crime attack ad on the PM.
In it, they accuse Mr Sunak of not thinking that adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison.
Yesterday it was reported that Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper was not told about the controversial attack adverts before they were launched.