The sex offences trial of the late Labour peer Lord Greville Janner will not go ahead, it has been announced.

This morning, prosecutor Richard Whittam QC told trial judge Mr Justice Openshaw that the Crown would not proceed with the planned trial of facts at the Old Bailey.

The Crown Prosecution Service brought legal proceedings against Janner last year but the situation was left in limbo following the peer's death in December.

The 87-year-old was charged with 22 sexual offences going back to the 1963, with many of the victims under 16 at the time.

But he suffered from dementia and when the case began in the Old Bailey Judge Justice Openshaw declared him unfit to stand trial.

Instead a "trial of the facts", where a jury considers the evidence but does not make a verdict on guilt, was to go ahead in April.

Following today's decision, however, the case has been dropped.

The allegations may still to be examined by the separate independent inquiry into child sexual abuse led by Justice Lowell Goddard.