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Persistence pays off as free paper names Britain's youngest magistrate

A free weekly paper has cut through red tape to reveal the name of Britain’s youngest magistrate.

The Crawley News was the first paper to reveal the identity of the 20-year-old, thanks to the persistence of its staff.

Legal officials had closed ranks and refused to reveal his name, despite the fact he had already heard at least one case, effectively putting his name in the public domain.

The chair of the local magistrates bench told the News he didn’t want the issue turning into a “media circus”, and didn’t budge when the paper quoted guidelines from the Lord Chancellor’s Office specifically about the naming of magistrates and their clerks.

When reporter Maheesha Kottegoda approached the Department of Constitutional Affairs its press office backed the chair of magistrates, quoting “Data Protection” as its reason for keeping his name out of the press.

But, minutes before press deadline, and after hours of digging and frustrating phone calls, all the hard work paid off and the News got its name – although legal officials continued to stonewall and refused to confirm it.

Maheesha said: “Whether he wanted publicity is not the point.

“He took on a public position and people in Crawley have a right to know who could be sitting in judgment on them.

“Other papers and media might have been happy to run the story without his name but that wasn’t good enough for us.”