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Echo wins right to name 12-year-old thug

The Liverpool Echo has won the right to name a 12-year-old boy who waged a 14-month campaign of crime against locals and workers in Bootle.

Despite a submission from the boy’s solicitor, magistrates agreed that the paper should be allowed to name him after he became one of the youngest people in Merseyside to be made the subject of a criminal anti-social behaviour order.

Reporter Greg O’Keefe told South Sefton Magistrates Court that young people who offend persistently and caused misery for a large number of people should be named.

He also argued that it would limit the effect of the banning order if the Echo could not name the 12-year-old, publish his picture and list his crimes.

And despite claimes by the boy’s solicitor that naming him would make him a target and have implications for his family, magistrates said publicity was necessary for the order to be effective.

Post & Echo managing editor Chris Walker said: “We’ve always believed that the whole point of such orders is so that the community where youngsters wreaked havoc are alerted to the fact that they have been punished for their crimes and of any restrictions that are in place.

“To have any effect people need to know who they are and what they look like.”

The Echo’s victory meant it could report in full details of the boy’s crimes, which included assault and drug offences, as well as publishing his photograph and comments from the boy’s grandmother.

The two year banning order prevents him from entering parts of Bootle, and he faces arrest if he is caught in the area or is found harassing anyone or causing alarm or distress.