Magistrates agreed to lift reporting restrictions on naming a persistent young offender after a challenge from Northern Echo trainee reporter Julia Breen.

The 17-year-old defendant appeared in court in South Durham after breaching an anti-social behaviour order just five days after it was made.

She and a friend, aged 18, were made the subject of an ASBO, in a bid to restrict their offending in Darlington town centre – and the magistrates made it clear that the threat of jail was hanging over them if they re-offended.

But days later, she stole two bottles of spirits from a supermarket in the town centre and smashed a security guard’s glasses.

When the case was heard, reporter Julia Breen, (pictured), was suprised to discover that the teenager was the subject of an order banning her identification when she appeared before South Durham magistrates and challenged them to lift the reporting restrictions under the Crime (Sentences) Act following the girl’s conviction.

She argued that the girl had already been front page news in The Northern Echo and had appeared on local radio and even in the national newspapers after the original order was made.

She said it was “overwhelmingly” in the public interest to name the girl, who had persistently shown a blatant disregard for the law and the public needed alerting to her behaviour to help prevent further offending.

Her defence solicitor, the defendant herself, and a member of the youth offending team argued against the restrictions being waived, saying it would have a serious impact on her family and would not prevent her offending again.

But magistrates said they had weighed up the interests of the girl with the public interest and decided that the public interest in this case was more important.

Peter Barron, editor of The Northern Echo, said: “The girl had been pictured on the paper’s front page as part of an attempt to warn local people about her unacceptable behaviour. It would have been ridiculous to then ban us from naming her just a few days later. Julia did exactly the right thing in challenging the order.”

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