Liberal Democrat panel will not reopen complaints against Rennard — The Guardian

An independent Liberal Democrat panel has decided not to reopen its consideration of sexual harassment complaints against Lord Chris Rennard. Following legal advice, the panel concluded that the case could not be reopened without new evidence, The Guardian reports.

The panel’s decision

The party instructed three independent arbitrators who are party members to reassess Rennard’s conduct. This followed legal advice that the 2013 investigation into complaints by four women had been flawed in several respects.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said he was disappointed and saddened by the conclusion of the independent process. Earlier, he suspended Rennard from the party after the review was reopened at the beginning of the year. According to Davey, the complainants had already been failed by a flawed investigation 13 years ago, and now the procedure had again prevented the case from being reviewed.

At the same time, Davey expressed full confidence in the current complaints procedure. In his view, it would handle a new complaint of this nature differently and more reliably.

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Rennard’s position

Rennard, a former party chief executive who received a life peerage in 1999, said that the complaint should be published in full. In his view, its contents show that the review should not have taken place.

Police and lawyers previously conducted a number of reviews, following which the allegations against Rennard could not be proven. He said that he apologised if he had unintentionally invaded anyone’s personal space.

In 2013, senior lawyer Alistair Webster KC concluded that the likelihood of proving the case beyond reasonable doubt was less than 50%. At the same time, a summary of his conclusions referred to generally credible evidence of conduct that violated the complainants’ personal space and autonomy. Rennard insists that the previous decisions were final, while his lawyer Richard Cannon called the reopened complaint legally flawed from the outset.