A regional daily reporter has overturned court rulings which would have prevented the naming of a couple convicted of harming their baby.

Edward Booker was sentenced to 33 months in prison at Oxford Crown Court after admitting fracturing his three-month-old babby boy’s right arm while his then partner Sharon Keitch also admitted child cruelty.

The couple were named after Oxford Mail crime reporter Ben Wilkinson successfully overturned reporting restrictions which would have enabled their identities to remain hidden.

Court staff told him there was an order under section 39 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 restricting identification of the baby and also an order under section 11 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 on the mother’s address.

Ben argued the section 39 order was unnecessary because the child, who is now three years old but was just a few months old at the time of the offences, was too young to be affected by any publicity.

He also pointed out that in this case both orders served only to protect the parents’ identity and went against the principle of open justice and its accompanying deterrence factor.

Said Ben:  “When challenged, the court realised the orders were unnecessary. It goes to show these orders are often wrongly imposed and worth challenging.”

Booker, of Samphire Road, Blackbird Leys, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm in November 2009.

He also admitted child cruelty in failing to get any medical help between the day after the baby was born in August to the incident in late November 2009.

Keitch, of Bayswater Road, Barton, admitted child cruelty through failing to get medical help immediately after noticing her son had a swollen arm.  She received a two-year community supervision order.