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Youth was not identified:ET wins court victory

The Peterborough Evening Telegraph has won a court case after the judge threw out a claim that the paper identified a youth responsible for a vicious assault on a pensioner.

The decision to go to court has been attacked by the Society of Editors, the paper’s own legal staff and editor Kevin Booth.

The teenager was convicted at Peterborough Youth Court and the Evening Telegraph published a front page story in April last year.

Under the Children and Young Persons Act, juveniles appearing in youth court cannot be identified – even when found guilty.

So the newspaper published a photo but pixelated the hooligan’s face to obscure it – a move often used across the industry.

But following publication, the youth and his mother complained to police that he had been identified.

In a magistrates’ court hearing Judge David Chinery heard evidence from the boy’s mother and two other prosecution witnesses who claimed the picture identified the 17-year-old – but decided there was no case to answer.

After the case was dismissed, editor Kevin Booth said: “Over many years we have received legal advice that it is OK to publish an image as long as pixelation or other methods are done sufficiently well to prevent identification.

“The prosecution was attempting to say the publication of any image of a defendant was in breach of the act.

“Fortunately, the district judge felt that it had to be viewed in conjunction with whether there was an appreciable risk of identification, and that is very much a common sense ruling.”

Tony Jaffa, media lawyer for Foot Anstey Sargent, said: “I cannot help feeling that this was a prosecution that should never have been brought. I cannot understand why the Crown Prosecution Service started the action.

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