Friday, 14 August 2015

Lord Janner arrives at London court for child sex abuse hearing

Lord Janner arrives in car

Lord Janner has arrived at Westminster Magistrates' Court where he will face historical child sex abuse charges.
The 87-year-old, who has dementia, arrived
in a silver Toyota, which was forced to stop as photographers surrounded it, BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said.

Lord Janner is due to appear in court at 14:00 BST to face 22 charges spanning the 1960s to the 1980s.
His family says he is innocent of any wrongdoing.
Arrest warning
Lord Janner had initially failed to attend Friday's hearing, despite a High Court ruling that he must attend.
His lawyer, Paul Ozin, had said a live link from the peer's home would be the option that was "least likely" to cause him to suffer, or failing that a live link from the court building or a police station.

But deputy chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot refused the request, saying: "Even if I have to have him arrested I am going to resolve this matter today."

She said live links were only permitted for giving evidence from police stations when someone was in custody - which Lord Janner is notOur correspondent said Lord Janner was only expected to be in court "for seconds", with the substantive part of the hearing taking place afterwards.

The peer will not have to go in the dock, but will instead stand or be seated facing the judge, said our correspondent.
The case is expected to be sent to a crown court.


                          BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF LORD JANNER


Greville Janner was born in Cardiff in 1928
Served in the Army and studied at Cambridge before becoming a barrister and then QC
Labour MP for Leicester North West and then Leicester West from 1970 until retiring in 1997, when he was made a life peer
Served as president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews
Diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2009
Suspended from the Labour Party but will remain a member of the House of Lords until his death or until he retires
Described by his family as a man of "great integrity" and "entirely innocent of any wrongdoing"

On Thursday, Lord Janner's legal team lost a High Court bid to prevent him having to attend the hearing.
Mr Ozin argued Lord Janner had "virtually no language left at all" and was likely to have a "catastrophic reaction" if he attended court.
But the judges said the public interest outweighed any personal distress he might experience, and any distress would be "of short duration"
Labour suspension

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

If a crown court judge decides the former Labour MP for Leicester is fit to plead, a full trial may take place.

If not, there will be a trial of the facts, where a jury will decide only if he committed the physical acts of abuse, with no finding of guilt and no conviction.

Greville Janner was made Lord Janner of Braunstone in 1997. He remains a life peer, but has been on leave of absence since 2014. He was suspended from the Labour Party in April.

His family have strongly denied claims he used his power as an MP to abuse young boys over the course of three decades.


BBC NEWS

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