A third daily newspaper has been rapped for publishing details which could have led to a sex assault victim’s identification.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation has upheld a complaint by an unnamed man against the Glasgow Evening Times after it included certain details in a court story which reported an individual had pleaded guilty to sexual offences against a young child.

IPSO has previously upheld complaints made by the same man about reports of the same case which were carried in the Daily Record and Paisley Daily Express.

The article by the Evening Times reported the period over which the offences occurred, by reference to the month and year, as well as the victim’s age now and their age when the offences began and ended.

It also revealed the circumstances in which the defendant came into contact with the victim, a number of details as to the nature of the offences and comments the defendant had made about his offences.

Complaining under Clause 1 (Accuracy), Clause 2 (Privacy), Clause 7 (Children in sex cases), and Clause 11 (Victims of sexual assault) of the Editors’ Code of Practice, the man said that by including certain specific details from the court hearing, including the circumstances in which the defendant came into contact with the victim and the date range for the offences, the Evening Times had failed to protect the identity of the victim.

He expressed concern that the article contained graphic detail about the nature of the offences, which he said should not have been repeated outside of the court hearing.

The Evening Times said that while the detail in the article may be distressing, it was a report of court proceedings which contained sufficient detail to allow readers to understand the offence.

It provided explanations as to why it did not believe that the specific pieces of information identified by the complainant were likely to contribute to the identification of the victim.

IPSO considered that the details the article contained about the circumstances in which the defendant came into contact with the victim were of the kind that were likely to be known within the victim’s community.

When reported alongside the age of the victim, and the time frames for the offences, these details represented material which was likely to contribute to the identification of the victim in breach of Clause 11.

The complaint was upheld, and IPSO ordered the Evening Times to publish the terms of its adjudication.

The full adjudication can be read here.