A court move by the Evening Gazette prompted the judge to lift an anonymity order on a 13-year-old hit with an anti-social behaviour order.

The Middlesbrough paper reported on the five-year ban from streets around his home – and was able to publish photographs of the troublemaker.

District Judge James Prowse, sitting at Teesside Magistrates Court, banned him from streets and alleys near his home until the even of his 18th birthday. The prosecution had been brought by the local council on behalf of a housing association.

Judge Prowse said that publicity surrounding the hearing would send a strong message to other youngsters and residents in Middlesbrough. It would also help prevent the youngster falling into a spiral of worsening crime, he said.

And in the next two weeks, council enforcement officers will deliver up to 1,000 leaflets in the area containing pictures of the teenager, details of his banning order and a contact number for anyone to report a breach of the court order.

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