Lord Janner: Child sex criminal proceedings dropped after Labour peer's death in December

The legal proceedings against Labour peer Lord Janner, who was alleged to have committed sex abuse against a series of children, have been dropped on 15 January following his death. He was ruled unfit to stand trial to face the charges against him because he was suffering from severe dementia.

Janner was alleged to have committed a total 22 sex offences dating back to the 1960s, many involving children under the age of 16. As he was ruled unable to stand trial, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) considered whether Janner should face a "trial by facts", whereby a jury can determine if he committed the acts, but cannot pass a verdict of guilty, nor would he be convicted.

He died in December 2015 aged 87 after suffering from a long illness. Following this, the CPS were still "considering the procedural implications" on whether a trial by facts against Janner could still go ahead in what would have been a first for the British legal system. This idea has now been scrapped and the case against Janner has been dropped.

A CPS spokesperson said: "The Central Criminal Court today received formal evidence of the death of Lord Greville Janner. As a result Mr Justice Openshaw brought proceedings to an end. This concludes the criminal proceedings against Lord Janner.

"In April 2015, the Director of Public Prosecutions commissioned an independent inquiry into the handling of past allegations of sexual abuse by Greville Janner. Now that criminal proceedings have concluded, we will publish the findings of Sir Richard Henriques' inquiry at the earliest opportunity."

Janner's family denied the accusations against him, describing him as a man of "great integrity and "entirely innocent" of the charges.