Lord Janner must attend court hearing over historic ‘abuse’ charges

Lawyers acting for the peer lost a bid in the High Court this afternoon to call for tomorrow’s magistrate hearing to be postponed.

Barring a successful last-minute appeal, the former Labour peer and MP will be forced to attend Westminster Magistrates Court in London to face 22 child abuse charges spanning a period from the 1960s to the 1980s.

His legal team argued that he should not be made to appear as he is suffering from severe dementia, and the appearance would cause “extreme distress”.

He told two senior judges: “Lord Janner’s dementia is now at such a level of severity that it amounts to a flawless storm in terms of the adverse impact on him of attending court”.

Mr Ozin added: “It is barbaric, inhuman and uncivilised to expose a very vulnerable person to the experience I have alluded to, particularly when it is wholly unnecessary and serves no logical objective”.

But, as it stands, he must attend court on Friday or risk arrest.

His lawyer argued he had “virtually no language left at all” and was likely to have a “catastrophic reaction” if he attended court.

Justice should be public and court not a place of “avoidable spectacle”, she said.

Lady Justice Rafferty, sitting with Mr Justice Irwin, said the peer had been charged with offences which must be tried in the crown court, and for that to happen he had to appear at the magistrates court – if only briefly – so the case could progress.

Earlier this year, Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders decided not to bring charges because of Lord Janner’s health – but this decision was overturned after an appeal by the alleged victims.

The CPS said it was unlikely that Lord Janner would be deemed fit to enter a plea and therefore the most probably outcome was a “trial of the facts”, where a jury can decide whether the defendant carried out the acts of which he has been accused, but cannot pass a verdict of guilty.