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Riot youth named following reporter’s challenge

A local newspaper reporter successfully challenged a court order which would have prevented the naming of a youth who had posted comments on Facebook encouraging riots in Worcester.

The teenager appeared at Worcester Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with inciting theft and criminal damage for a post on the social networking site linking to a site called Letz Start a Riot.

Reporter Richard Vernalls from the Worcester News attended the hearing where 16-year-old Johnny Melfah was appearing, along with a 22-year-old man. When he realised reporting restrictions were in place he stood up and asked the clerk of the court to lift the order.

Magistrates had previously imposed a section 39 order to prevent identification of the youth, who is thought to be the first under-18 to be named in court over riot-related offences.

Despite there being media representatives from other newspapers and news agencies, Richard was the only reporter who challenged the order which would have prevented the youth from being named in any reports.

Said Richard: “I stood up and said that what these guys were charged with is effectively incitement to get other people to steal during an unprecedented period of disorder in the country, which left many people fearing for their lives.

“Because of this I felt it was in the public interest.”

This was the first time in four years that Richard had managed to overturn a court order, “I think the court effectively feels that it would hurt the youth in the long-term but I think they agreed that this was something quite unusual,” he added.

The youth in question appeared in youth court the following day when automatic restrictions were applied but were again lifted on the request of the newspaper.

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  • August 25, 2011 at 12:21 pm
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    Nice one, Richard! Let’s hope other courts follow suit.

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