A court order is preventing parents being warned about a young drug dealer who supplied cannabis to his classmates – despite magistrates branding it “worse than murder”.

The Reading Evening Post had applied to West Berkshire Youth Court to be able to name the school.

It felt there was a public interest issue and that parents had a right to know about drug dealing which could affect their children.

There is an automatic Youth Court ban on identification or publishing any details likely to identify the defendant, so that the child is protected, unless it is in the public interest to name them.

The Evening Post promised that if it was allowed to name the school it would not reveal any other details about the teenage dealer.

Magistrates agreed there was a “legitimate public interest” but said the court wanted to give the teenager the chance to make a clean start.

Reading West MP Martin Salter said the Evening Post had been right to fight to allow parents to know about the case.

He said: “It is extremely regrettable that the courts have prevented parents knowing what criminal acts have been occurring that concern the school in question.”

And Evening Post editor Andy Murrill said: “The Evening Post believes parents have a right to know if their children are at risk of falling prey to drug dealers.”

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