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A bizarre ruling that has resulted in sex offenders’ names being omitted from court lists in the north east has been overturned.

Legal chiefs told the Hartlepool Mail that the ban was brought in to protect the press from breaking strict reporting laws surrounding sex cases.

But what it did was stop the paper – and other media in the area – from reporting them at all.

Editor Harry Blackwood said: “We successfully overturned a five-year-old ruling that prevented the names of alleged sex offenders from being given to the press.

“Up until then, defendants who faced allegations from gross indecency to rape were constantly omitted from the list of cases that is handed to journalists covering Hartlepool Magistrates Court each day.

“Yet people accused of less serious offences such as not holding a television licence or driving without insurance still saw their names in print.

“The ban, which defied clear Government guidance and legal experts’ advice, could well have led to convicted sex attackers staying out of the public eye during its five-year existence.

“And it has also prevented newspapers from helping to clear the name of people wrongly accused of sex crimes as happened only last week.”

He said he had no idea how many cases had been missed during the five years but the diligence of his staff meant they had been successfully tracked through the courts.

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