Reporters from the Western Gazette have won the right to name a mother who pleaded guilty to allowing her children to play truant.

South Somerset Magistrates Court in Yeovil had placed a Section 39 order on the case, which concerned 14-year-old twins, at a pre-trial review in April.

But when the case came to court this week reporters Tom Bevan and Richard Birch were prepared with a legal argument to challenge the Section 39 order, based on the principles of open justice.

The reporters used statements made by Lord Justice Glidewell from R vs Central Criminal Court 1995 and a number of the seven principles raised by Lord Justice Simon Brown in R v Crown Court at Winchester ex p B {2000] I Cr App Rep II, to oppose the Section 39 order – and the court agreed.

Chairman of the bench at South Somerset Magistrates Court Judy Richards said: “After hearing all the oral and written arguments, we consider that the importance of protecting the people involved in this case does not outweigh the importance of the principle of open justice.”

The ruling meant the Gazette was able to run a front page story in its Yeovil and Crewkerne editions highlighting the case, which saw mother Maria Lehmann plead guilty to two charges of failing to send her children to school under the Education Act 2000. She received a £560 fine.

The newspaper’s success in getting the Section 39 order revoked followed another victory in the same court.

A joint campaign led by Richard Birch of the Western Gazette and Mark Ford of sister newspaper the Western Daily Press led to a Section 39 order being lifted in the case of a mother who had taken her three-month old baby with her on a nine-hour drinking binge.

She pleaded guilty to child neglect charges and was given an 18-month community rehabilitation order and told to pay £30 costs.

Again, a Section 39 order had been imposed at the first hearing of the case in April to protect the child but the reporters put a case to the court that, due to the child’s age and the disgraceful nature of the crime, the anonymity order should be lifted.

Magistrates agreed but the lifting of the order has been suspended as the mother’s solicitor has demanded that the decision be taken to a judicial review.

A date for the review has not yet been confirmed.

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