Newsquest has failed in a bid to block a court injunction banning the media from naming a woman who knowingly infected the father of her second child with HIV.

The group, which publishes the South Wales Argus, which covers the area where the mother lived, argued that it was only a speculative suggestion that if the mother was identified as being HIV positive her children might suffer.

It claimed there were no compelling circumstances which would justify imposing reporting restrictions on the criminal trial of the mother, but its arguments were rejected.

The decision, by Lord Justice Potter, President of the Family Division, is the first to be considered in the High Court since the House of Lords decided last year that such orders should be made only in what Lord Steyn called "the most compelling circumstances".

In coming to the decision, the competing rights of freedom of the press under Article 10 and the rights of the child under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights had to be considered.

The order was originally obtained by a local authority from a judge in a district registry of the family division, and the case was then moved to the Family Division at the High Court.

It prohibits the identification of the mother, and her former partner, in the criminal proceedings, in order to protect the woman's two children, who were involved in care proceedings.

The woman was awaiting sentencing having admitted knowingly causing her then partner, the father of her younger child, grievous bodily harm by infecting him with HIV.

The mother was jailed for two years at a hearing in a crown court earlier this month.

The mother and the children - who did not live with her - had lived on one of a small group of council estates which in effect formed a self-contained community.

Lord Justice Potter said in his judgment that when the mother's condition became known to neighbours she had suffered harassment and abuse.

The local authority had subsequently had to move her to an estate some miles away.

There was evidence, he said, that publicising the fact that the mother and her former partner had HIV could seriously damage the children's welfare and their care.