The Birmingham Evening Mail has persuaded a judge that naming a policeman involved in a road accident would not compromise his safety as a witness in an ongoing gangland murder trial.

The officer, James Hibbert, pleaded guilty to careless driving in the wake of an accident in which a teenage girl lost her leg.

The paper could not report on the hearing because of a gagging order prohibiting publication of any details of the case.

But a joint challenge by the Mail and the BBC resulted in the order being lifted.

District Judge Robert Zara said: “"There is no connection between these proceedings and the murder trial.

"How will reporting of his conviction and sentence for this offence put him any more at risk than he already may be in the other case?"

The officer was in an unmarked police car responding to a robbery when he was in collision with the girl, aged 12, on a pedestrian crossing.

Back to the law index

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
e-mail pastill@nep.co.uk