Lord Janner loses High Court bid to stop court appearance over child sex abuse charges

Lawyers for Lord Janner have lost a High Court bid to prevent him having to attend court tomorrow to face child abuse charges.

The former Labour peer and MP was ordered to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London in relation to 22 charges spanning a period from the 1960s to the 1980s.

His legal team says that the 87-year-old is suffering from dementia, and forcing him to attend court in person is unlawful and violates his human rights.

They wanted tomorrow’s hearing halted to give him time to seek judicial review of the decision that he must attend.

But this afternoon a judge sitting at the High Court ruled that Lord Janner, whose home in West Heath Road, Hampstead, was raided in 2013 in relation to the allegations, must attend court tomorrow.

Lady Justice Rafferty, sitting with Mr Justice Irwin, said the court had “unhesitatingly concluded” that the balance between the human rights of Lord Janner and “the public interest in public justice” came down in favour of Janner’s attendance in court for the brief period required by the law.