An editor has slammed a judge’s decision to allow his newspaper to name a teenage thug – but not publish the boy’s photograph.

The Nottingham Evening Post won the right to name a 14-year-old boy who has been made the subject of an 30-month anti-social behaviour order after a court heard how he terrorised people living on a local estate.

But district judge Mervyn Harris said that although he thought the boy should be named, the Evening Post could not show his face.

The judge said: “It is the name that is important because in the future the name can be given to the agencies who enforce the order.

“But a picture is not necessary in this case, namely because it may not help as members of Jamie’s family look very similar and could be mistaken.”

Following the decision, the Evening Post labelled the ruling as “bizarre”.

Editor Graham Glen said: “The community is ill-served by this sort of judgment. It flies in the face of guidelines given to courts.

“England’s senior presiding judge ruled that effective enforcement of anti-social behaviour orders might require the publication of photographs of young offenders as well as their names and addresses.”

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