FORMER Labour peer Lord Janner was ordered to appear in court in person yesterday on child sex charges.

Lord Janner, who suffers from severe dementia, did not attend Westminster magistrates’ court for an initial hearing, with his lawyers saying he was too ill to come and may suffer a “catastrophic reaction” if he did.

But chief magistrate Howard Riddle ruled that Mr Janner, who faces 22 charges spanning a period from the 1960s to the ’80s, did not have to understand or play a part in the initial hearing but was required by law to attend court.