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Weekly overturns court order in child neglect case

A journalist from a weekly newspaper successfully challenged a Section 39 order which prevented him fully reporting a child neglect case.

Huw Silk, from the Northants Telegraph, was covering the case of a woman who had pleaded guilty to child neglect after she failed to call for medical help, despite her son suffering injuries at their home when he was 22-months-old.

Prosecutors applied for a Section 39 order to be placed on the child, so he could not be identified, which meant that it could not be reported that the boy was the defendant’s son.

However, after a written request by Huw, Judge Rupert Mayo agreed to amend the order so the relationship between the victim and the defendant could be reported.

Huw made the challenge to the order when the case was at Northampton Crown Court for sentencing last week after the 23-year-old defendant pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to child neglect.

He argued that the child, who is now nearly three-year-old, was too young to be adversely affected by publicity about the case.

Huw also made reference to similar cases at Reading and Ipswich Crown Courts, as highlighted in McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists.

Said Huw: “The prosecuting barrister tipped me off in the lunch break that he was going to apply for a Section 39 order, and so before court resumed I asked the clerk what would be the best way of making the challenge.

“Honestly, I was slightly terrified I would have to stand up in front of His Honour Judge Mayo, but fortunately the clerk told me to put the challenge in writing.

“I submitted a scrap piece of paper, quoting the Judicial Studies Board, as found in my 2009 edition of McNae’s. There were also a couple of examples similar to the case I was covering.

“It was quite a relief when the judge amended the order to allow the relationship between the victim and the defendants to be publicised. The story would have been nothing without it, and in any case it wouldn’t have done much for open justice.”

At last week’s hearing, thr woman was sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence, a 12-month supervision order and an 18-month mental health treatment requirement.

Her former partner, 22, has also pleaded guilty to the same offence and will be sentenced later this month.

The court was told that the woman’s son had suffered cuts, swellings and bruises to his face, chin, back and leg in a suspected assault at their home.

The Crown Prosecution Service was unable to gather enough evidence to determine who assaulted the boy, who is now up for adoption.

* The original version of this story has been edited to remove the names of the defendant and her partner following a request.