Macclesfield Express editor David Lafferty has been cleared of naming a sex assault victim in his paper.

The case was dismissed after a trial.

Parent company MEN Media pleaded guilty to publishing details of a complainant under Section 1(2), and 5(1) of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992, and was fined £1,500 by a judge sitting at Chester magistrates court, and ordered to pay a further £1,500 in compensation.

The editor had pleaded not guilty to the same charge, after the victim’s name appeared in the Express.

The newspaper has a 17,229 circulation in and around the market town of Macclesfield, with a 54,549 readership.

Prior to the court hearing, David Lafferty had previously accepted that a serious breach of the Editors’ Code of Practice had occurred, apologised to the complainant and outlined to the Press Complaints Commission the steps taken to ensure that the problem would not be repeated.

Stewart Rigby, managing editor of MEN Weekly Newspapers, said: “We fully accept the ruling and regard the events of the past few months as being a salutary lesson to ourselves and also to other editors to be mindful of the legislation surrounding the reporting of court cases in the media.

“I am personally very pleased that the court was able to find the editor of the Macclesfield Express David Lafferty not guilty and that we can now put the events of the past few months behind us and get back to producing a great paper for the people of Macclesfield.”