The Northern Echo has overturned a High Court order which prevented it from reporting the latest court appearance of a mother who was last year convicted of three counts of child neglect.

The original story about Kelly Ann Rogerson, who left her three children with a 15-year-old babysitter while she went on a two-week holiday to Turkey, sparked national outrage.

Later a Prohibited Steps Order, served by Darlington Borough Council to protect the children’s identity, banned any further stories about the mother.

But in March this year police found Rogerson to be in possession of a stolen mobile phone which broke the six-month suspended sentence imposed on her for neglecting her children – and the Echo decided to act in a bid to report the case.

Deputy editor Chris Lloyd contacted Darlington Borough Council’s legal department, arguing that the order was too restrictive and that it was in the interests of justice for the public to see how Rogerson had been dealt with by the courts.

With the council’s backing, Chris made two appearances before Judge David Bryant at Teesside Crown Court to fight for the right to name Rogerson and report her latest offence.

A new injunction imposed by Judge Bryant and drafted by The Northern Echo and Darlington council, maintains the anonymity of the three children.

Chris said: “We wholly supported the intention of the original order in terms of protecting the children’s identity.

“But given the publicity the case had attracted both locally and nationally, we felt it was too restrictive not to be allowed to report the ongoing law-breaking of the mother.

“The new injunction maintained the anonymity of the children but allowed us to report the fact that Rogerson had committed a further offence.

“It must be in the interests of justice for people to seen the court’s sentence being fulfilled.”

When she appeared before Darlington Magistrates Court to face the charge of handling stolen goods, Rogerson had taunted a Northern Echo reporter, saying: “I wouldn’t waste your time, there’s an injunction so you can’t write anything.”

But after the injunction had been revised, the story about her latest court appearance – resulting in an extended suspended sentence and a community service order – was published on the Echo’s front page.

Back to the law index