A trainee reporter successfully challenged a Section 39 order in a manslaughter case at the Old Bailey.

Juliet Eysenck, of Trinity Mirror’s Paddington, Marylebone and Pimlico Mercury, was yesterday covering the trial of 16-year-old Youssif Drissi who had admitted the manslaughter of his friend, a 14-year-old who died after a stabbing incident in March 2008.

Even though he was under 18, the case was considered so serious that Drissi appeared at the Central Criminal Court.

A Section 39 order, under the Children and Young Person’s Act 1933, had been placed on Drissi earlier in the case preventing publication of any details which could lead to his identification.

Judge Timothy Pontius was considering the order prior to sentencing Drissi to two years in a youth offenders institution and Drissi’s defence lawyer requested the order stand while the prosecutor said they had no wish to challenge it.

Juliet, 23, decided to challenge the order as Drissi was being sentenced and passed a note via the clerk to the judge.

She asked whether the Section 39 order could be lifted on public interest grounds, citing the case of R v Lee, where Mr Justice Lloyd said Parliament intended there to be a difference between a youth court, where anonymity for under-18s is automatic, and an adult court, where this power is discretionary.

Judge Pontius told the court there was a “strong public interest” for allowing the press to name the defendant and lifted the order. Juliet is due to sit her Trinity Mirror Certificate in May.

She said: “I was delighted to succeed in the challenge. It looks like all that revision is paying off.”

Mercury editor Janice Raycroft said: “We’re all very proud of her and there was a lot of excitement in the office when she phoned in to tell us what had happened.

“There were agency reporters in the court but it was Juliet who used her initiative to achieve an excellent result.”