The youngster and her mother approached Liverpool Echo court reporter Chloe Griffiths after Judge Mark Brown, sitting at Liverpool Crown Court, made the order banning publication of the defendant's identity.

But he lifted the ban after the girl and her mother wrote to him to protest, saying that they wanted people to know what he had done.

The judge had made an order banning the media from naming the man because of fears that identifying the man might lead people to identify his victim.

The reporter had intended to cover the case, but stopped when the anonymity order was made.

But the victim's mother approached her and asked why the newspaper had not covered the prosecution - and the fact that the rapist was given an indeterminate sentence for public protection and told that he had to serve a minimum of six years. So Chloe explained the situation about the anonymity order.

The mother then approached the judge to explain how she and the victim wanted the anonymity order lifted, and he said he would want some confirmation of what she was saying. So the pair both wrote letters asking the judge to allow the offender to be named.

Judge Brown, who sentenced on March 10, reopened the case on March 27 and lifted the ban on identifying the man who admitted 20 sexual offences, including four rapes and 12 charges of making indecent photographs and videos, some showing young girls and boys being raped.

In her letter to the judge, the child wrote: "I want people to know what he's done and why he's gone to prison in case he's hurt anyone else."

She told the Liverpool Echo: "I want him to go in the newspaper in case he did it to anyone else, so they will speak up."

The mother later told Media Lawyer that despite the move, nobody had identified the little girl as the victim of the sex offences.