The Director of Public Prosecutions who let off Lord Janner over alleged child sex abuse started her career at a legal chambers when the disgraced Labour peer was a top QC there.

Alison Saunders, 54, sparked outrage last week when she decided the 86-year-old should not face a string of charges of paedophilia against nine children because he has dementia.

Today, newly-released documents revealed damning evidence that abuse was covered up by police and social workers for more than 20 years.

And now it has emerged Mrs Saunders' law career got off to a flying start when she secured her pupillage – a barrister’s training contract at 1 Garden Court Chambers in London in 1983.

It has been revealed that the country's top prosecutor Alison Saunders (right) who ruled that Lord Janner (right) would not face trial over alleged child sex abuse trained at the same legal firm where he was a QC

Last night, The Sun revealed that Mrs Saunders trained in the same in legal chambers where Lord Janner had practised.

The Bar Council, the training body for barristers, confirmed Janner worked at the legal firm from the mid-1950s up until 1986.

But a spokesperson for the CPS insisted the pair had never met, despite a three-year overlap of their time at the firm.

She told MailOnline: ‘It is common knowledge that Alison Saunders had her pupillage at Garden Court chambers.

'But the DPP and Lord Janner have never met. This is ridiculous.’

The chambers were Saunders and Janner practised at 1 Garden Court was dissolved in 1989. Since then, a different and unconnected family law chambers has operated from the same address.

ALISON SAUNDERS' ROUTE TO THE TOP By Richard Marsden for the Daily Mail Alison Saunders graduated in law from Leeds University in 1982 and was called to the Bar in the following year. Her pupillage – a barrister’s training contract – was at 1 Garden Court Chambers, the same offices where Lord Janner practised employment law. She joined the Crown Prosecution Service in 1986, after which she shaped policy on child victims. In 2001, she became chief prosecutor for Sussex and oversaw the prosecution of paedophile Roy Whiting for the abduction and murder of Sarah Payne. After a short time as deputy legal adviser to the attorney general from 2003, she returned to the CPS two years later to set up its organised crime division. In 2009, she became chief crown prosecutor for London and then Director of Public Prosecutions in November 2013. Advertisement

Now, the country's top prosecutor is facing calls to quit from campaigners and alleged abuse victims.

Pete Saunders, director of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said the revelation is 'an insult' to survivors of abuse.

He told The Sun: 'On the evidence how can we not conclude that they might be covering for each other.

Lord Janner (pictured after being sworn in as a Queen's Counsel in 1971) worked at Garden Court Chambers from the mid-1950s until 1986

It is scandalous and an insult to to all the survivors who have spent decades fighting to get themselves heard.'

The Crown Prosecution Service concluded there was enough evidence to charge Janner with 22 offences from 1969 and 1998.

While admitting that dementia is not 'a bar' to prosecution, Mrs Saunders has defended her decision not to bring charges against Janner, adding she was surprised at the political backlash she has faced.

Janner’s family have issued a statement insisting he was ‘entirely innocent of any wrongdoing’ - but he has been suspended from the Labour Party.

‘Dementia in itself isn’t a bar to either a trial or to a trial of the facts, but you have to look at – and the law is very clear about this – is there a need to have a trial on the facts for the public protection?’ she told the BBC.

‘In many of the cases where we do use that procedure, it’s because there’s an ongoing risk to the public. Again the medical evidence was very clear in this case: there was no ongoing risk.’

But her links to the shamed peer come as it emerged the judge tasked with reviewing the mistakes that prevented Janner from being brought to trial in the past was a close friend of the barrister hired to defend Janner against claims of abuse.

Lord Janner turned to the late George Carman QC - who also represented paedophile Jimmy Savile - when he was first investigated in 1991.

Sir Richard Henriques considered Mr Carman a mentor at the Bar, The Times reported.

But Mrs Saunders has insisted that Sir Richard's friendship with Mr Carman would have no influence on the review.



