The Evening Herald was allowed to name a teenager sentenced to 12 months’ detention for running amok on a Plymouth housing estate.

The paper won a legal battle to name the 13-year-old when magistrates agreed that printing his name would be in the public interest.

He was sent to a secure unit after admitting two charges of causing criminal damage while the subject of an anti-social behaviour order.

He would normally have been protected from being identified because he appared in the youth court.

The magistrates ruled that after careful consideration about the issue of identifying the youngster, and the effect it might have on his life, his right to anonymity was overridden by the public interest.

The Herald said in its leader column: “The ASBO was imposed in an attempt to curb his behaviour.

“But the boy showed contempt for the sentence, and those who suffered because of his actions, committing more anti-social crimes just three weeks later.

“Now he is being made to face up to his wrongdoing.

“The Evening Herald won the right to identify him because magistrates agreed that printing his name is in the public interest.

“However, we gain no satisfaction from this, or the fact that this young boy is now experiencing custody at such a tender age.”

Lifting restrictions on publishing a photograph of the boy was refused, because of the abuse already targeted towards his mother’s home, which had been attacked with stones and eggs.

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