A regional daily successfully overturned a court order to allow them to report on the trial of an ISIS sympathiser who wanted to marry ‘Jihadi John.’

Sheffield daily The Star had restrictions imposed under the Contempt of Court Act quashed by a judge to allow it to fully cover the case of Zafreen Khadam, left.

Khadam has been jailed for four-and-a-half years for sharing propaganda and murder videos produced by so-called ‘Islamic State’.

At the start of her trial at Sheffield Crown Court, a judge barred any reporting beyond Khadam’s name, age, address and the charges she was facing after defence counsel Dermot Hughes argued making any information public could exacerbate previous medical problems and jeopardise the trial.

However, the order was overturned after a courtroom challenge by Star reporter Chris Burn – pointing out the section of the act being applied could not be used for the comfort of the defendant.

Judge Julian Goose QC, who was not sitting when the original order was imposed, agreed to overturn the restrictions prior to the opening of the trial.

Judge Goose said that although it had been suggested that Khadam had suffered from depression and anxiety, he did not accept the argument the trial could be put at risk by publicity of it.

He added: “I have come to the conclusion there is not a significant risk to the administration of justice, let alone a substantial one.”

The jury was told how Khadam, 32, from Sheffield, had wanted to marry Jihadi John and had shared ISIS propaganda and execution material on Twitter and WhatsApp encouraging people to commit acts of terrorism.

She was found guilty of 10 counts of dissemination of terrorist publications.

Said Chris: “I was pleased the judge overturned the reporting restriction and allowed us to properly inform the public of the details of this important trial.

“It allowed us to fully present the prosecution case against Khadam, as well as being able to report what her defence to the charges were.

“In my application to overturn the restriction, I used McNae’s Essential Law For Journalists to provide the court with relevant appeals and legal rulings that I believe helped to make the case this trial should be reported openly and accurately in the interests of open justice.”